An explosive device attached to Yusuf’s car detonated while he was driving to work early in the morning in the Hamarweyne District of the capital, Mogadishu, local journalists told CPJ. Police said the bomb had detonated by a remote-controlled explosive device, according to news reports. Yusuf died instantly within the car.
Yusuf, 27, who was popularly known as “Yusuf Keynan,” was editor of the popular Mogadishu-based Mustaqbal Radio and correspondent for the humanitarian news Radio Ergo based in neighboring Nairobi, Kenya. Local journalists said Yusuf covered daily news for Mustaqbal Radio and reported on humanitarian issues, including internally displaced persons, for Radio Ergo. The journalists said he had often criticized the Al-Shabaab militia and the Somali government.
Yusuf had received anonymous death threats via his cell phone in the weeks prior to the attack, Radio Ergo journalist Muhyadin Ahmed Roble told CPJ.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Prime Minister Abdiwali Sheikh Ahmed said security forces were investigating the attack, according to a press statement.
In 2013, Yusuf was a recipient of the U.N. Somalia Media Awards for his humanitarian reporting at Radio Ergo in Somalia. He is survived by a wife and two children.