A journalist working for a radio station in Somalia was hit by stray bullets this week – the second such incident in a month – and the premises of a newspaper were struck by artillery shells during heavy fighting, according to reports. Two journalists who were detained by security forces of the transitional government last Sunday have been released.
The offices of the Mogadishu-based Xog-ogaal newspaper were hit by artillery shells during a heavy fight between the African Union forces and the Islamist insurgent group Al-Shabaab on 30 March, damaging property, reports say. The newspaper is reportedly located in an insurgent-controlled area that has been the front of fighting in recent days.
SIMBA radio’s sports reporter Ahmed Hassan Ahmed was rushed to hospital after being hit in the stomach by a stray bullet on 29 March. Ahmed had been covering a football match in Mogadishu’s Hodan district, again as fighting took place nearby, reports say.
Earlier this month, on 13 March, a woman journalist for Radio Voice of Peace was hit in the shoulder by a stray bullet while on her way home from work, say reports.
Two members of independent Somali radio network Radio Shabelle who were detained by the authorities on 27 March were released on 30 March. Director Abdirashid Omar Qase and news editor Abdi Mohamed Ismail were arrested by members of the National Security Agency allegedly as a result of a report from 22 March that criticized the Transitional Federal Government President Sharif Sheik Ahmed, Reporters without Borders (RSF) reported. Although the interior minister originally requested an apology from the two, Qase and Ismail refused and were nonetheless released on Wednesday.