Ahmed Omar Hashi was no stranger to death threats. As a senior producer for Mogadishu’s popular Shabelle Radio, Hashi routinely reported on Somalia’s bloody, eighteen-year civil war, and all the bitter politics that accompany it. By 2007, he was regularly receiving threats, by phone and text message. But the Islamic insurgents from the hard-line Al-Shabab group, who were suspected in most of the threats, never made good on them. Other Somali journalists were less lucky. Around twenty have been assassinated since 2007.

In May, Al-Shabab launched a major assault on the new, moderate, Western-backed government in Mogadishu. Shabelle Radio closely covered the fighting, which is ongoing. On June 7, gunmen attacked Hashi and his boss, Moqtar Hirabe, while the two were walking in a Mogadishu market. Hirabe, a respected veteran journalist, was killed. Hashi was shot in the hand and stomach, but survived.

In the aftermath of the attack, the Committee to Protect Journalists and the news Web site World Politics Review raised money to sneak Hashi to neighboring Uganda, where he is recovering from his wounds and applying for asylum in the United States. David Axe spoke to Hashi there by e-mail and phone.

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