Investigative reporter and radio journalist Rahmo Abdulkadir was shot dead on Sunday evening in Mogadishu, the Committee to Protect Journalists said on Monday. Two unidentified gunmen shot Abdulkadir five times as she was walking to a relative's house near Bacaad Market in Yaaqhiid District of the capital, news reports said. Local journalists there said the gunmen fled the scene before police arrived.
News accounts reported that Rahmo's unidentified female companion was unharmed in the attack.
Rahmo, just 25, was a reporter for Radio Abudwaq (translated as Worshipper), and was visiting Mogadishu from the Galgadud district, a region in central Somalia, where the station was based, CPJ said.
.Local journalists told CPJ the station covers news and social affairs for the central region of Somalia. It has yet been revealed whether the material she was covering was sensitive or not.
Last month, Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon set up an Independent Task Force on Human Rights whose mandate includes investigating past cases of journalist murders, according to news reports. The prime minister also announced a $50,000 public reward for information leading to the conviction of a journalist killer.
CPJ, which ranks which countries are the most dangerous to report for journalist has put Somalia as the most perilous for journalists in Africa. For the third consecutive year, the country has ranked second on CPJ's impunity index.
Oft-times, journalists are caught in the line of fire, and lose their lives at the hands of warlords, gangs, armies or repressive governments. Noted journalists in the past year have been killed, notably in Syria, including Marie Colvin and Anthony Shadid.
At least 18 media workers were killed in 2012,Agence France Presse reported. Somalia's journalists have suffered a string of attacks, including assassinations or bomb blasts, which were often blamed on al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab terrorists.
Last week, a car bomb exploded near the presidential palace in Mogadishu, killing at least 10 people in a blast that appeared to target senior government officials. Mohamed Nuxurkey, a local journalist also died in that blast, AFP reported.
