More than four Somali local radio journalists operating in Afgoi district of Lower Shabelle region, begun to flee from there after they have received death threats.


Abdirizak Omar, Shabelle local radio correspondent in Afgoi who was member of the fled journalists told RBC that they run from the area after they received phone calls and warning leaflets those said ‘they will be killed’.
“On Friday morning I was called by unknown caller and he warned me that I will be killed, because of working for Shabelle radio”, Abdirisak said.

The leaflets were scattered around the centre of the town and warned that any journalist involved in the local media will be targeted if he suddenly stop working for what they described infidels.

The threats emerged a day after local radio journalist Hassan Mohamed Abikar (Hassan Matore) was wounded in Afgoi by unknown militia. He is now recovering from wound-bullets in Mogadishu hospital.

Hisbul Islam’s led administration of Afgoi, some 30-KM south of Mogadishu had not commented any further about these threats. While most of the journalists operating in the Islamist ares are under risk of their reporting.

Nine journalists were killed in Somalia last year, making the country the second deadliest in which to be a journalist, according to media watchdog organizations.

Somalia’s chaos has dragged on for nearly two decades. For the last three years, the conflict has pitted Islamist insurgents against the weak, U.N.-backed government forces who are holed up in small area of the capital.