Muhyadin was shot to death while covering a protest in Afgoye, about 18 miles (30 kilometers) from Mogadishu. Muhyadin, 26, was a reporter for the Mogadishu-based radio station Capital Voice, owned by the HornAfrik media company.
She was covering a blockade by commercial drivers on the Mogadishu-Afgoye road, according to HornAfrik Co-Director Ahmed Abdisalam Adan. The drivers were protesting the proliferation of militia roadblocks. While they were attempting to stop private traffic, a gunman fired into Muhyadin’s taxi, Abdisalam told CPJ. The bullet passed through the front seat and hit Muhyadin, who died instantly.
CPJ sources said the gunman was the assistant of a protesting trucker from the same sub-clan as his victim. Following negotiations, he paid compensation to her family, according to Somali tradition.
Somalia has had no functioning central government since the collapse of the Siad Barre regime in 1991. Militia leaders have carved the country into rival fiefdoms, many of them riddled by violence. In May, veteran HornAfrik journalist Abdallah Nurdin was wounded by an unidentified gunman.