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.