Long-Time Serving Sports Journalist Slain in Mogadishu

By Shafi'i Mohyaddin Abokar

High profile sports journalist and Former Vice President of the Somali Tennis Federation Yusuf Ali Osman (fareey) has been killed by unidentified assailants in Mogadishu early on Sunday, his son Hassan Yusuf confirmed.

The veteran journalist was attacked and killed by young men armed with pistols and wearing high school uniforms as he was leaving home toward his office earlier in the day. The late Osman who served as Somali Tennis Federation Vice President for 8 years was one of the founding members of the Somali Sports Press Association in 1997.

In a press statement the President of the Somali Sports Press Association Abdi Aziz Godah Barre strongly condemned the brutal killing and urged the Somali government to investigate the matter and try to punish the perpetrators of the brutal killing.

"This kind of killing is the job of the notorious Al-shabaab terrorists, but journalists and sports volunteers in Somalia are committed to continuing their professions" SSPA president Abdi Aziz Godah Barre said in his press statement Sunday.

"It is really a painful experience, every month we mourn for a colleague - Yusuf was a great man in the field of sports media whose remembrance will always remain in our minds," the terrified SSPA President said in his statement.

The late Osman's killing is the 8th of such assassination against journalists in Somalia since January this year. This shows that Somalia is still a dangerous place for journalists working in the lawless country.

Somali journalists are similarly tortured, robbed, arrested or most cruelly killed by all sides involved in Somali conflicts including Somali government, moderate Ahlu Sunna Waljama'a Islamists or the Al-Qaeda-linked Alshabaab terrorists.

Shafi'i Mohyaddin Abokar is the NewsBlaze Somalia reporter. Contact him through NewsBlaze. Read more stories by Shafi'i Mohyaddin Abokar.