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Gunmen shot and killed a Somali radio reporter in Galkayo as he headed home on Wednesday night (May 3rd), police and radio officials confirmed.

Journalist Farhan Jeemis Abdulle, who worked for Radio Daljir in Puntland, was killed by masked men who disappeared after the killing, said police official Mohamed Gelle.

"The police carried out security operations after the killing, but no one has been arrested so far, though investigations are still going on," Gelle said.

"He left the radio station and a few minutes later we were told he was dead ... it was shocking and unbelievable to all of us," said Abdifatah Omar, director of Radio Daljir. "They brutally shot him several times."

Abdulle was the fifth Somali journalist to be killed in Somalia this year, and second journalist killed in Puntland in less than two months.

No group has claimed responsibility for the journalist's killing.

Press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has described Somalia as the deadliest African nation for journalists, and the killing came on the eve of World Press Freedom Day.

"Somalia's permanent state of conflict creates a highly dangerous atmosphere for reporters and their work is made even more risky, even impossible, by the intolerance of Islamist militias towards freedom of information," the RSF said in a statement.