Sheikh Nur Mohamed Abkey

Radio Mogadishu

May 4, 2010, in Mogadishu, Somalia

Three gunmen shot Abkey, a veteran Radio Mogadishu journalist, near his home in the southern Mogadishu district of Wardhigley. Local journalists said Abkey's body, found in an alleyway, also showed evidence of torture.

Journalists at state-run Radio Mogadishu said they had received phone calls from the Al-Shabaab insurgency claiming responsibility for the murder. Radio Mogadishu journalists believed Abkey was killed simply because of his affiliation with the government-run station.

Abkey, said to be in his early 60s, served as a researcher and staff trainer for the station. He joined the profession in 1988 as a reporter for the former Somali National News Agency and had worked for several media houses in Mogadishu, including HornAfrik Radio, the Somali Television Network, and East Africa Radio, the National Union of Somali Journalists reported.

Colleagues said he refused to be intimidated by the warring factions in Mogadishu and rebuffed suggestions that he live at the station for security reasons. Abkey was survived by a wife and four children.

Medium: Radio

Job: Producer

Beats Covered: Culture, War

Gender: Male

Local or Foreign: Local

Freelance: No

Type of Death: Murder

Suspected Source of Fire: Political Group

Impunity: Yes

Taken Captive: Yes

Tortured: Yes

Threatened: Yes

Related Articles:

• Getting Away With Murder, June 1, 2011
• 'A Somali journalist's life is short anyways', September 14, 2010