Kampala - A second female journalist has been killed in Somalia in a period of less than six months.
Unidentified gunmen shot Sagal Salad Osman, a producer for Radio Mogadishu, on Sunday Radio Mogadishu reported.
Osman was shot outside a university in the west of the capital, Mogadishu, and later died at a hospital in the city.
Condemning the attack Somali President Hassan Sheikh warned that those who harmed innocent people should be held accountable and would be brought to justice as had happened before.
Osman is the second female Somali journalist to be murdered in less than six months following the death of Hindia Haji Mohamed, who was blown up in a car bombing last December, an attack that Al Shabaab extremists claimed responsibility for.
Mohamed, who worked for Somalia’s state-run broadcaster, was the widow of a murdered journalist and was one of three journalists killed during the course of their duty in 2015.
Somalia is one of the most dangerous countries to work in for journalists with members of the media regularly targeted by extremists.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says attacks on the press in the country have killed 59 journalists since 1992, with 18 killed in 2012 alone.
The surge in violence followed the outbreak of civil war in the Horn of Africa country in 1992.
However, Al Shabaab are not the only perpetrators of the attacks on the media with criminals, warlords and even government agents suspected of carrying out some of the killings.
Furthermore, an atmosphere of intimidation pervades as journalists try to report, with many receiving death threats while the police rarely investigate violence or threats against journalists.
– African News Agency