Somalia: NUSOJ mourns the loss of a colleague

5 Aug 2011

MOGADISHU: The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) has mourned the death of Farah Hassan Sahal, a media executive at SIMBA Radio, who was gunned down at the premises of the station on Thursday, 4 August 2011.

Farah Hassan Sahal was killed by sniper fires at the radio compound, while along with other media executives were attempting to move radio equipment into the safer zones of Mogadishu.

"We have moved part of the equipment and we were trying to collect the remaining radio equipment when Farah Hassan was shot three times, one hit the head and two bullets hit his chests." said Abdullahi Ali Farah, director of SIMBA Radio, "Actually, the fires were shot from an area controlled by the AMISOM Forces at the Abu Hureyra mosque in Bakaro."

"The shooting to death of Farah Hassan Sahal is chilling torment for Somali media, especially the union, providing that they have been shot from an area controlled by African Union Peace keeping forces." said the secretary general of NUSOJ, Mohammed Ibrahim. "We send our deepest sympathy to the family, friends and colleague of Farah Hassan, wish him Allah's blessings."