NUSOJ Mourns the Death of Veteran Somali Journalist in Kenya. Press Release
"On behalf of Somali Journalists, I send my deepest and heartfelt condolences to the families, friends and journalist colleagues of late Mohamed Mohamud Afrah and may he rest in peace and ask Allah to give him in hereafter life in his paradise" Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu Secretary General of National Union of Somali Journalists said. "The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) shares this sad feeling and loss to all Somali Journalists and the family’s members of late Mohamed Mohamud Afrah who was a role model to many Somali journalists and his death is a big blow to the Somali media in general. Mohamed Roble Noor, who worked together with Afrah at Halgan weekly newspaper said Mr. Afrah was always a happy person who is committed of telling the stories of Somalia to the world as it is. He had a page called "FIDAY-NOTEBOOK". His book TARGET BOOK: VILLA SOMALIA in 1991 attracted many readers PROFILE: Mohamoud M. Afrah was born in the Somali capital of Mogadishu in 1933 and was raised, educated and worked in his adopted country of Kenya. He worked for a local newspaper as a cub reporter in the coastal town of Mombasa, and took a journalistic course in what was then the Federal Republic of Germany and was the first African journalist to cross the Berlin Wall through the notorious Charlie Check Point at the height of the Cold War. At a press conference upon his return to West Berlin, he was asked his impression about the wall that divides the German people. He said that the wall goes through the same building where Africa was divided during the scramble for Africa in 1882/4. Three years later, he returned to his native country to set up a popular English language weekly (HEEGAN) and doubled as Reuters news agency correspondent in Somalia for more than two decades. He fought tooth and nail against draconian censorship laws introduced by the military regime in 1982. His weekly Friday Notebook gave the military regime's ideologue endless displeasure. However, General Barre, who knew MM Afrah personally, told them to bog off! Mr. Afrah was there when military dictator, Major-General Mohamed Siyad Barre came to power in a military coup in October 1969. He was there when General Barre was ousted by a ragtag militia youths in beach sandals. He was there when the young United Somali Congress rebels turned their guns on each other for the control of Mogadishu, the Somali capital. He was there when US Marines and Army Rangers stormed the sandy beaches of the embattled capital to spearhead an international task force under orders from former US president George Bush, codenamed Operation Restore Hope. He was there to see them leave. He watched as their initial goodwill turn into an impotent rage, and saw their efforts to protect food aid end in fiasco. It cost the US and the United Nations billions of Dollars and the lives of several US and UN soldiers end up in body bags. He was once the only journalist representing an international news organization who remained in the war-torn country. He received more than 20 death threats from the local warlords, because they were upset about his dispatches from Somalia. Undaunted, he continued to send stories of the carnage in Somalia until the last possible moment. He was Newsman of the Year 1995. He has written several books about the civil war and famine and contributes hard-hitting Talking Points and commentaries about the Somali warlords to this website and to international and community newspapers in Canada where he writes things that other people are afraid to write and calls a spade a spade. In an article in the British edition of ESQUIRE magazine of April 1995, Aidan Hartley, who worked with MM Afrah in Africa, describes his frontline reporting as BRAVERY UNDER FIRE. "…Throughout Somalia's civil war, the period of the failed United Nations mission and following their withdrawal, journalists have been murdered, kidnapped and harassed by the clan militias. Their offices and vehicles have been attacked and their freedom of expression curtailed. The Somalis who stayed on in Mogadishu are brave men and women-but few are as prominent as in reputation as Mohamoud M. Afrah. He escaped death and imprisonment at the nick of time on an international Red Cross flight after ruthless warlords kept him in a dungeon." End |
©2019 National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) | Maka Almukarama road ,Waberi ,Mogadishu ,Somalia |
NUSOJ Mourns the Death of Veteran Somali Journalist in Kenya. Press Release
The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) mourns the loss of veteran journalist Mohamed Mohamud Afrah, who passed away in Nairobi on Sunday evening April 14, 2019. According to family members the Late Mohamed Mohamud Afrah was so sick in th