Somali journalist killed in car bombing

A Somali radio journalist was killed in a car-bomb attack in the capital Mogadishu on June 21. A bomb believed to have been attached underneath Yusuf Ahmed Abukar Keynan's car exploded after he entered the vehicle, Somali media reported. Keynan's colleagues and friends said he was on his way to work when the bomb went off.

In this photo taken April, 4, 2010, Somali journalist Yusuf Keynan sits in radio station center in Kenya. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)

Keynan worked for the privately owned Radio Mustaqbal and contributed to the UN humanitarian radio Ergo, based in Nairobi, Kenya. He had worked in number of radio stations previously. In 2013 Keynan received the Somali Media Award given by the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) and the United Nations.

So far no group has claimed responsibility for murdering the journalist. However, Keynan had been knownfor his criticism of both Somalia’s UN-backed government and the Islamist militant group al-Shabab, which is battling the UN-backed Somali government.

NUSOJ, the International Federation of Journalists and international media advocacy organizations, have called on Somali authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into Keynan's murder. Even though Keynan is the first journalist killed in Somalia this year, NUSOJ has reported many incidents of intimidation and violence.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists reported 52 deaths of journalists in Somali since 1992. Out of half of the killings since 2005, however, only one resulted in conviction. Such statistics placed Somalia second after Iraq on 2014 CPJ’s Impunity Index.