Farah, 27, vice president of the National Union of
Somali
Journalists and a contributor to several local and international news
outlets,
was shot by two men in Kismayo as he walked home from an Internet
café at around 7 p.m., local journalists told CPJ. Farah was rushed to
a local hospital but died within minutes from blood loss,
the journalist union reported.
In
a follow-up report, the union said Farah had been killed by
insurgents in reprisal for his work. Farah had been reporting on a
conflict over distribution of tax revenue in Kismayo, Abdi Aynte, a
correspondent for the BBC, told CPJ.
The slaying came a day after Farah expressed fear for his
life amid escalating insecurity in Kismayo. “I do not know if I can work in
this hostile environment anymore. I am so scared,” Farah told an Agence
France-Presse reporter one day before his murder.
The journalist is survived by his wife, who was six months
pregnant at the time of the killing, and a son.
Just weeks before his death, Farah contributed a piece to
CPJ’s magazine, Dangerous
Assignments, recounting the killing of Somali National News Agency reporter
Hassan Kafi Hared.