Somali TV Journalist reportedly killed in Mogadishu suicide bombing

SOMALIA – A Somali television journalist has been killed in a suicide bombing in Mogadishu, police say.

Africanews reported that Abdifatah Moalim Nur Qeys, 33, , was fatally injured by the explosion at a restaurant in the capital, with police confirming the attack’s perpetrators were members of militant group al-Shabaab.

He was Director of Somali Cable Television.

“At around 21:00 a Khawarij [al-Shabaab] suicide bomber detonated explosives on people who were having tea outside the Blue-Sky restaurant in Bondhere district,” police said in a statement.

They added that four other people were injured outside the restaurant.

Al-Shabaab, which is affiliated with al-Qaida, immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in a message on Telegram.

In a post on the social media platform X (formely Twitter), the Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism, Daud Aweis, wrote that he was “saddened by the tragic loss of Abdifatah Moalim Nur”, adding “may his extraordinary work in journalism be celebrated and remembered”.

Elsewhere, reactions poured in from Nur’s colleagues across Somalia and the region.

The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) wrote in a statement that they were “deeply shaken and outraged by the senseless and brutal act that took the life of Abdifatah Moallim Nur (Qeys), a distinguished journalist”.

The Union’s Director, Omar Faruk Osman, decried what he said was “the tragic and merciless murder of a bright journalist, taken away from us far too soon”, while the International Press Association of East Africa (IPAEA) also condemned the killing.

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