His editors told Horn Observer that, Abdiwali had to follow up a story assignment he was busy in the previous days. He was eagerly willing to file a story on the impact of December heavy rains that have resulted flooding across a large swath of Afgoye and left more than 1500 People there internally displaced.

Finishing the day’s task, the 25-year-old journalist was returning from work at about 6 p.m. when two gunmen followed him and immediately shot him several times in the head and chest, according to statement from the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS). He died as his friends and family tried to rush him to the hospital.

For those who knew agree that humanitarian side of the journalism was Abdiwali’s passion but albeit his limited experience, he has also covered conflict and terrorism that has ravaged his country and his region, the Lower Shabelle, the second most populated region of Somalia.

"That has made Abdiwali a journalist who is not welcome by both sides as they would not agree on his impartial reporting. Whenever he reports on an issue, al-Shabaab would be annoyed and also the government officials were not happy with him,” the slain journalist’s close friend told Horn Observer in anonymity due to fear for his safety.

A day before his death, Abdiwali was in Shalanbood town, about where the renovated school and the district commissioner’s office were officially inaugurated. This was seen as a sign of returning a bit of stability following oust of al-Shabaab rule in this town several years ago. His TV report was in the evening broadcast on Universal Somali TV, according to Abdullahi Ahmed Nur, the TV’s Mogadishu-based news editor who spoke to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

"The same Saturday, Abdiwali was able to gather interviews and also file a radio news beat on the Somali military operations in parts of Lower Shabelle trying to attack al-Shabaab-held villages. That was an extraordinary work,” the journalist’s friend adds.

The Somali Journalists Syndicate reported that Abdiwali’s news story on the military operation was aired on Radio Kulmiye, an independent radio in the capital, Mogadishu.

RISK TAKER

Colleagues and family members said the journalist had been receiving anonymous threats. Universal TV editor Abdullahi Ahmed Nur told CPJ that Abdiwali had received threats over several months for his reporting. Two weeks before his death, unidentified people posted the journalist’s photo on a Facebook page saying that "Abdiwali was killed,” said Abdullahi, adding that the post was later deleted.

Abdiwali’s wife told Horn Observer that her husband had in mid last year fled home and went into hiding for two weeks following threats on his life. She spoke, how Abdiwali narrowly escaped death at one instance after gunmen raided his home.

"Unknown callers threatened that they will kill him. I don’t know who they were but they were people who closely monitored his work,” Abdiwali’s wife said while insisting her name not to be published "One midnight, armed men entered the home and asked about Abdiwali’s whereabouts. Luckily he was not at home that night. They left.”

After two weeks in hiding, the journalist resumed reporting. Colleagues say Abdiwali had returned thinking it was safe to do so.

"This was the only place he knew. He had a family which he loved. He knew he was taking risks but at least he thought it was safe for him to go back,” says the journalist’s friend.

but the wife says, her husband decided to return with the belief that even in Mogadishu, those trying to harm him could get him.

"He would always ask if you hide yourself from one group what about the other side,” she adds meaning that journalists faced threats from both the al-Shabaab militant group and from the Somalia authorities.

CALL FOR INVESTIGATION

The Somali Journalists Syndicate has called for a prompt investigation and arrest of the perpetrators, while the managing director of Radio Kulmiye has asked both Somalia Federal Government and the Lower Shabelle Governor to open an honest probe into the journalist’s murder.

On Wednesday, Kalamaan, a daily satire show at Radio Kulmiye, where Abdiwali worked featured how top Somali government officials remained silent on their colleague’s death while the U.S Embassy, which is a foreign entity, condoled on the death of the journalist.

"Abdiwali was a brave journalist who wanted to see a peaceful Somalia. He advocated for displaced peoples through his reporting. He was not liked by al-Shabaab and he was not liked by Somalia government,” Abdiwali’s friend said.

His death records as the first journalist killed in Somalia in 2020. For the fifth straight year in 2019, Somalia topped CPJ’s Global Impunity Index, which highlights countries where journalists are slain and the killers go free.

(HORN OBSERVER)