Hassan Mohamed is on the left.
NAIROBI – Veteran Somali radio journalist Hassan Mohamed, 45, died early yesterday morning in Eastleigh, a Nairobi suburb. He had fled Mogadishu in 2010, having been threatened, kidnapped, and shot twice. One of hundreds of Somali refugees in Kenya, many of them journalists, Hassan struggled to support himself and survive worsening diabetes-related ailments, despite relentless support from Somali colleagues and friends, including CPJ. His death highlights the plight of exiled journalists in East Africa.
Affectionately known as “Jaeyl,” Hassan was a reporter, producer, and librarian at Somalia’s first independent broadcaster, founded in 1999 — HornAfrik, a radio station that he kept on the air even after senior staffers fled the country. To the Mogadishu public, he was most famous for his radio dramas — morality plays about local society. Hassan’s comical yet poignant dramas were perhaps one of the reasons why the Islamic militants, Al-Shabaab, targeted him.
(This story appeared in Horseed, established by a group of Somali Diaspora in Netherlands and Finland. Read the rest here.)
Died and Yet ... 