Mogadishu, Somalia (AHN) – Days after a Somali journalist was shot and severely wounded in southern Somalia, warning pamphlets were scattered in the town of Afgoye, about 30 kilometers southwest of Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, prompting a number of journalists to flee.

“The journalists in Afgoye, who are working for the enemy of Allah, would be killed.” read the warning leaflet.

Abdurrazak Adam Qoslaye, the Afgoye correspondent of Shabelle, a local radio station based in Mogadishu, said after those pamphlets were seen, great fear faced reporters in the area.

“I came out of the town scared and worrying. Because [at] every bus stop in the town the fighters of the insurgent group Hizbul Islam could be seen, so I stealthily and sneakily walked on foot using small passages. I caught a bus [at] a place about three kilometers away from the town of Afgoye,” Qoslaye told a local radio station, adding that “Not only I safely arrived at Mogadishu, but two other journalists were with me.”

In Somalia, working in journalism is a dangerous task.

Tuesday, masked men armed with pistols attacked and severely wounded a journalist in Afgoye, a stronghold of Islamist insurgents in the lower Shabelle region in southern Somalia. Hassan Mohammed Abikar, known as “Hassan Matore,” was shot in the chest four times by five masked men.

In 2007, two Somali journalists were killed in Mogadishu in separate attacks within hours of each other.

Infringement against freedom of speech has became routine in Somalia.

In April, Hizbul Islam’s chairman for the Banadir region, Moallim Hashi Mohammed Farah, ordered local radio stations to stop playing music.

Since the fall of Somali central rule in 1990, more than 15 journalists have been killed in different regions in Somalia.

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