MOGADISHU, Somalia, 21 March 2021 – Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) condemns the gun shooting incident that resulted the serious injury of Goobjoog Media Group’s cameraman, Sharma’arke Abdinur Wehliye by a Somali police officer in Mogadishu on Saturday night 20 March.
Around 8.40pm on Saturday night the young cameraman Wehliye was heading home from work when a police officer fired one bullet at him penetrating his stomach before fracturing his left forearm, according to a family member and Goobjoog’s deputy director Abdiaziz Gurbiye who spoke to SJS. Wehliye was admitted at a private hospital where doctors performed an emergency surgery on his stomach and made a blood transfusion.
“Goobjoog Media Group cameraman Sharma’arke Abdinur Wehliye was shot and injured by a police officer at Sinay junction in Mogadishu. We don’t know the reason yet and we have asked the police to investigate and arrest the officer who shot and injured our cameraman,” Mr. Gurbiye told SJS.
Goobjoog editor, Hanad Ali Guled told SJS that Wehliye’s last assignment on Saturday was covering a public debate on youth participation in the country’s politics.
SJS is deeply concerned by the lack of move by the Somali federal police officials to conduct an investigation and arrest the officer responsible for the shooting of cameraman Wehliye.
“We condemn the police shooting that resulted the wounds of cameraman Sharma’arke Abdinur Wehliye of Goobjoog Media Group in Mogadishu on Saturday night. This young cameraman was heading home from work and only to find a police officer shot and injured him. Even we still do not know the reason, we join Goobjoog Media Group’s call for an instant investigation into the shooting incident and arrest the officer responsible of it,” Abdalle Ahmed Mumin, the secretary general of Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS) said.
On 25 June 2020, a police officer shot and injured Radio Danan journalist Abdifatah Abduqadir Sharif in Mogadishu’s Hodan district. The officer responsible was not arrested.
On 26 July 2018, a police officer shot and killed SBS TV cameraman Abdirizak Kasim Iman in Mogadishu. Despite the military court sentencing, the killer officer is still at large.