Gunmen assassinate prominent Somali journalist

From Mohammed Amiin Adow

A prominent Somali journalist was shot and killed by suspected Islamist gunmen in broad daylight on Wednesday, as one of his colleagues watched in horror. Journalist Said Tahlil Ahmed was killed by gunmen in Somalia, according to a colleague who was with him. Journalist Said Tahlil Ahmed was killed by gunmen in Somalia, according to a colleague who was with him.

The journalist who witnessed the assassination of Said Tahlil Ahmed in Mogadishu said the two gunmen also intended to kill others. “First, they shot him in the back and then one of the armed men came over him and fired more shots into his head to finish him off,” he said. “One of the gunmen was shouting, ‘Kill the other one,’ which they meant another one of us.” The journalist did not want his name released for security reasons. Tahlil, the director of independent HornAfrik Radio and host of a popular radio talk show, was on his way to a meeting that had been called by the Islamist militia Al-Shabaab, when gunmen from the group attacked him, his colleague said.

The National Union of Somali Journalists issued a statement strongly condemning Tahlil’s assassination, which it blamed on Al-Shabaab — a radical Islamist militia that controls parts of Mogadishu and four regions in southern Somalia. “This is an outrageous and appalling assassination,” said NUSOJ Secretary-General Omar Faruk Osman, in a prepared statement. “Said Tahlil Ahmed was assassinated because of his strong and professional commitment for independent journalism.” The surviving journalist — who suffered injuries to his legs after he fell down while fleeing the attack — said Al-Shabaab had called for a meeting with Mogadishu radio station directors, but the group would not say what the meeting was about, according to the witness and NUSOJ.

“This is absolutely shocking and the journalists in Mogadishu are in a state of fear,” the journalist said. “We are extremely worried about our safety.” Local radio and television stations in the Somali capital had been broadcasting live coverage of last week’s Somali presidential election held in Djibouti, which many Islamist groups — including Al-Shabaab — have rejected. Al-Shabaab has imposed harsh Islamic law, or sharia, in the areas of Somalia that it controls. It seized the city of Baidoa, where the transitional government is based, preventing the newly elected government from returning to Somalia. Last year, the United States put Al-Shabaab on its list of terrorist organizations because of its ties to al Qaeda.

Tahlil is the second journalist to be murdered in Somalia this year. Militias shot and killed Hassan Mayow Hassan, a reporter for Shabelle Radio, on January 1 in the agricultural town of Afgoye. The Committee to Protect Journalists lists Somalia as the seventh most deadly nation in the world for journalists. Members of the news media work under duress there amid a war between a weak transitional government and insurgents, the committee said, and 10 Somali journalists have been killed in the last two years. Tahlil’s predecessor, HornAfrik chairman Ali Iman Sharke, was killed by a roadside bomb in Mogadishu in 2007, after he had returned from the funeral of another radio director who was killed on the same day by unknown gunmen in Mogadishu. Shabelle radio’s acting director, Bashir Nor Gedi, was also killed in 2007 near his home in Mogadishu by unknown gunmen.

Africa celebrates Obama victory with pride, hope

By ELIZABETH A. KENNEDY
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NAIROBI, Kenya — For many across Africa and the world, Barack Obama’s election seals America’s reputation as a land of staggering opportunity.

“If it were possible for me to get to the United States on my bicycle, I would,” said Joseph Ochieng, a 36-year-old carpenter who lives in Kenya’s sprawling Kibera shantytown, a maze of tin-roofed shacks and dirt roads.

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki declared a public holiday Thursday in the country of Obama’s late father, allowing celebrations to continue through the night and into a second day. From Europe and Asia to the Middle East, many expressed amazement that the U.S. could overcome centuries of racial strife and elect an African-American president.

Scenes of jubilation broke out in the western Kenya village of Kogelo, where many of Obama’s Kenyan relatives still live. People sang, danced in the streets and wrapped themselves in U.S. flags. A group of exuberant residents picked up the president-elect’s half brother Malik and carried him through the village.

“Unbelievable!” Malik Obama shouted, leading the family in chanting, “Obama’s coming, make way!”

“He’s in!” said Rachel Ndimu, 23, a Kenyan business student who joined hundreds of others for an election party that began at 5 a.m. Wednesday at the residence of the U.S. ambassador to Kenya, Michael Ranneberger.

Obama was born in Hawaii, where he spent most of his childhood raised by his white mother. He barely knew his father. But for the world’s poorest continent, the ascent of a man of African heritage to America’s highest office was a source of immeasurable pride and hope.

Tributes rolled in from two of Africa’s groundbreaking leaders. Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first black president, said Obama gave the world the courage to dream.

“Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place,” Mandela said in a letter of congratulations.

Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf — the first woman elected to head an African country — said she did not expect to see a black American president in her lifetime.

“All Africans now know that if you persevere, all things are possible,” she said.

In Britain, The Sun newspaper borrowed from Neil Armstrong’s 1969 moon landing in describing Obama’s election as “one giant leap for mankind.”

Yet celebrations were often tempered by sobering concerns that Obama faces momentous global challenges — wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the nuclear ambitions of Iran, the elusive hunt for peace in the Middle East and a financial crisis.

Europe, where Obama is overwhelmingly popular, is one region that looked eagerly to an Obama administration for a revival in warm relations after the Bush government’s chilly rift with the continent over the Iraq war.

“At a time when we have to confront immense challenges together, your election raises great hopes in France, in Europe and in the rest of the world,” French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a letter to Obama.

Obama’s victory also was greeted with cheers in Mexico, where former Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda wrote in the Reforma newspaper that the presidency represents a chance for Mexico to remake its relationship with the United States.

“Obama’s win … opens to Mexico an extraordinary opportunity to reposition itself in the world because it will be infinitely easier to be a neighbor, ally and friend of the United States with Obama,” he wrote.

Americans living abroad, too, basked in the glow of a victory hoped for by most of the world.

“I’m proud of being an American today,” said Jody Suden, a mother of two in London. “It’s such a shift from the way things have been.”

This report includes information from Cox News Service.

Pirates to kill crew on arms ship if NATO ships attack

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Food and water are running low on the Ukrainian arms ship hijacked by Somali pirates, and a pirate spokesman warned Thursday if the ship was attacked by NATO forces its 20-man crew would be among those killed.

Armed Somali pirates, at top and in red boat, guard the captives on the hijacked Ukrainian arms ship MV Faina.

Spokesman Sugule Ali also mocked comments by Tomex Team, the firm operating the MV Faina cargo ship, which said it has accumulated only $1 million toward the $20 million ransom the pirates initially demanded.

“That is worthless,” he said. “It would only pay for several nights’ stay in a hotel!”

However, Ali declined to say whether the pirates had lowered their ransom request.

He told the Associated Press that supplies were running out but the pirates would share what remained with the crew.

“We Somalis don’t eat in front of a hungry person,” he said, speaking Thursday by satellite phone. “We will share our food with them.”

But he repeated his promise to fight back if attacked, regardless of the arrival of a flotilla of NATO warships.

“Either we get the money or hold onto the ship. And if attacked, we will fight back to the bitter end,” Ali said.

“The important thing, though, is if we die they will die too,” he added, referring to the Faina’s crew.

The Faina was heading for a Kenyan port with a cargo of 33 battle tanks and heavy weapons when armed pirates seized it September 25 off coast of Somalia. The ship is now anchored off Somalia’s coast near the central town of Hobyo, where Ali was seeking medical treatment Thursday.

U.S. warships have surrounded the Faina for weeks, making sure its heavy weapons don’t fall into the hands of any insurgent groups linked to al Qaeda.

Pirate attacks off the coast of Somalia this year have surged 75 percent, the International Maritime Bureau said Thursday, calling for serious international action against the brigands who “operate with impunity.”

It says the waters off Somalia, including the Gulf of Aden, are the world’s most dangerous, accounting for 63 — or nearly a third — of the 199 reported pirate attacks worldwide between January and September 2008.

The agency urged navies around the world to target the pirate’s main supply ships before they succeed in hijacking cargo vessels.

“The locations and descriptions of these mother ships are known. We therefore call upon all governments to direct their navies to disrupt the activities of the pirates and their mother ships. This is vital to protect this major world seaway,” bureau director Pottengal Mukundan said in a statement.

The lawless Horn of Africa nation has had no central government since a group of clan-based warlords overthrew a socialist dictator in 1991.