Gunmen shot and killed a Somali man who was working as a journalist for the BBC in southern Somalia Saturday.

Witnesses and relatives of Nasteh Dahir say he was shot outside his home in the Somali town of Kismayo, about 500 kilometers south of the capital Mogadishu.

A report in April by the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists cited Somalia as one of the world's most dangerous places for a journalists, who are often targeted because of their profession.

In January, a roadside bomb in Kismayo killed a journalist for the government-run Somali National News Agency.

The region has faced outbreaks of fighting since last June, when clashes erupted between two rival sub-clans.

Still, the region is considered relatively calm compared to the capital, where the Somali government and allied Ethiopian troops have been battling Islamist insurgents.

Violence in Mogadishu has killed thousands of people and forced 600-thousand others to flee.

Somalia has been without an effective central government since 1991, when rebel fighters overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

Since then, a number of factions, including Islamist insurgents, have been battling for control of the country as a transitional government struggles to assert its authority.