Shot Somali journo in coma

25/05/2005

Mogadishu - A well-known Somali journalist has been shot and seriously wounded by a gunman in the capital Mogadishu, his news organisation said on Wednesday.

A man with a handgun shot journalist Abdalla Nuraldin Ahmed three times in the leg, chest and arm as he was talking with a group of friends on Tuesday evening, a statement from Horn Afrik TV & Radio said.

The surgeon who operated on Nuraldin told reporters he was still in a coma but would probably survive.

Apart from reporting, Nuraldin is also active in Somali cultural circles as a songwriter, poet and playwright.

Nuraldin is the third journalist working for Horn Afrik who has been attacked since the station was established in 1999.

Journalists in Somalia, a country rocked by factional warfare since 1991, often face attacks by militia leaders and powerful businessmen when publishing stories about their affairs.

Only hours after the Tuesday night shooting, reports said two other journalists had been arrested by anti-terrorist police in the northeastern Puntland region of Somalia. No explanation was given for the arrests.

Earlier this month, the only independent newspaper in Garowe, the regional capital of Puntland, was suspended by authorities there.

The African Union (AU) this month said it would deploy an initial force of 1 700 troops to Somalia to aid the return of the country's government-in-exile.

The troops, half from Uganda and half from Sudan, aim to provide protection and facilitate the relocation of the so-called Transitional Federal Institutions (TFI) from neighbouring Kenya. - Sapa-dpa