Albertan among scores of hostages still being held
A Somali journalist kidnapped by gunmen a week ago was freed on the weekend, global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said Monday.
Ibrahim Mohamed Ali, director of London-based private channel Universal TV, was kidnapped 13 kilometres west of Mogadishu on June 2.
He was released Sunday, according to the Paris-based Reporters With-out Borders.
Somali gunmen have kidnapped scores of foreign journalists and aid workers in recent months and most of the Somali journalists abducted had been fixers or translators for foreign reporters.
Director of Somalia’s Shabelle radio network Mokhtar Mohamed Hirabe was gunned down in Mogadishu on Sunday, making him the fifth journalist killed this year in the lawless Horn of African nation.
Somalia is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists. Media houses have been routinely shut down by the authorities and many reporters, Somali and foreign, have been kidnapped by armed groups.
Two freelance journalists, Albertan Amanda Lindhout and an Australian, were kidnapped near the capital some nine months ago and are still being held.
Somalia has lacked an effective central government since the 1991 ouster of president Mohamed Siad Barre plunged the country into vicious violence.
Source: The Calgary Herald
By Agence France-presse
