Two more journalists have been killed in Somalia, which has become one of the most dangerous places for media professionals in the world.
Residents and witnesses say the beheaded body of online sportswriter Abdirahman Mohamed Ali was found dumped near a restaurant north of Mogadishu on Thursday.
On Friday, local reporters confirmed that another journalist, Ahmed Abdullahi Fanah, was fatally shot while riding on a bus that had stopped at a security checkpoint in the capital. They say shots were fired after the bus driver and security officials got into an argument over vehicle fees and Fanah apparently was caught in the crossfire.
The incidents raise the number of journalists killed in Somalia this year to 15. Most of the incidents have taken place in or near Mogadishu.
Laetitia Bader, a Human Rights Watch researcher in Africa, says some of the attacks on journalists appear to have been deliberate.
"We have documented at least six in Mogadishu alone which appear to have been targeted killings and killings by gunmen," she said, adding that it remains unclear who is responsible for the violence. "Several of these reporters have actually been producing reports which could be seen as controversial by many groups, and so it has been very difficult to say or to point fingers in one director or another."
She says Human Rights Watch has been urging Somali authorities to carry out "prompt and credible investigations" into the attacks.
