Sunday April 5, 2020
MOGADISHU (HOL) - The U.S ambassador to Somalia Donald Yamamoto has come to the defence of VOA journalist Harun Maruf terming the threats by the national intelligence agency against the journalist an affront to media freedom in the country.
The U.S embassy in Mogadishu described Maruf as a ‘respected and professional journalist’ in a rare rebuke at the country’s intelligence agency.
Describing Maruf as one of the most influential journalists in Somalia, Yamamoto said the threats by the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) amounted to a threat to press freedom and independent media.Yamamoto’s remarks come amid sharp reactions from Somalis online and followers of Maruf who condemned the statement from NISA.
NISA issued a statement through its Twitter account Thursday to the effect that Maruf who co-authored Inside Al-Shabaab was a threat to the country’s security adding it would pursue legal action against him but did not specify any charges.
It was not immediately clear why NISA made such remarks against Maruf but an expose by the journalist last year linking the intelligence agency to suspicious import of firearms which had allegedly been seized by EU Naval force could explain the move by the agency.
In his periodical investigative series i-dossier last yearn, Maruf revealed that NISA had acquired the weapons from Djibouti and kept them in a secret armory without going through the UN sanctions inspections.
Djibouti government did not confirm nor deny it was the source of the weapons, the programme details.
According to the expose, a plane carrying firearms landed at Aden Adde Airport in Mogadishu in June 27, 2019 and were stored at an armory within the airport and later transported by NISA owned vehicles to an unspecified location.
Maruf is one of the most followed influential Somali journalists on social media and has extensively covered security and terrorism in Somalia and the Horn of Africa.