Incident
Two journalists killed in Somalia suicide car bomb attack
Details
Abdihakin Mohamed Omar, producer for the Somali Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), and Mohamed Abdikarim Moallim Adam, a reporter for Universal TV, were killed in the explosion on 26 July. Another Universal TV reporter, Salman Jamal, was seriously injured.
The Jazeera Palace hotel is the home of the diplomatic missions of China, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. The jihadist group
Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack.
According to the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), the three journalists were passing in the front of the hotel, after leaving the nearby airport, when the attack happened.
NUSOJ and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)
both issued statements following the attack. “We condemn this barbaric act which has claimed so many innocent lives, including that of two working journalists,” said Omar Faruk Osman, NUSOJ’s secretary general.
And IFJ president Jim Boumelha said: “We are shocked by this tragic loss that affects the journalists community in
Somalia. We send our condolences to our killed colleagues’ family and friends and condemn this cruel attack on civilians.”
The attack was the latest in a string of bomb blasts and murders in Somalia by Al-Shabaab, which is attempting to overthrow Somalia’s western-backed government.
