Three unidentified gunmen killed Ahmed, 25, a correspondent for the private, London-based Universal TV, in the town of Las Anod at around 9 p.m., local journalists told CPJ. The assailants fled before police arrived at the scene.
Ahmed had worked as a journalist for more than eight years and was the Las Anod representative of the Somaliland Journalists Association, a local press freedom group. Hours before his death, he had reported on a bomb blast that authorities blamed on Islamic insurgents, according to local journalists and news reports.
Ahmed had been briefly detained, along with two other journalists, on October 12, after interviewing Las Anod residents expressing support for the new prime minister, Abdi Farah Shirdon, according to news reports.
Dahir Adan, a local police official, told Agence France-Presse that police were investigating the murder, but had not yet confirmed a motive. No group had claimed responsibility for the attack.
Ahmed was the first work-related fatality CPJ documented in the semi-autonomous republic of Somaliland.