Frenchman Benoît Maria, head of Agronomes and Veterinarians Without Borders (AVSF) in Guatemala, killed Monday in an armed attack on his vehicle in the northeast of the country, fell into an "ambush", said this Tuesday to AFP the director general of the NGO.
“He was ambushed and shot dead in his car. The Guatemalan police are investigating and will do what is necessary, ”said Frédéric Apollin. This 55-year-old French agricultural engineer had led AVSF's activities for 20 years in Guatemala, where he carried out agricultural projects in favor of the indigenous Mayan communities and assisted them in the preservation of their lands.
An open investigation
"The work on land in Guatemala is indeed sensitive, but we can not speak of a threat, there was, to our knowledge, none that weighed on our association or on Benoît who found himself visibly in the wrong. place at the wrong time, "said Frédéric Apollin, who assures us that AVSF has been working" for 20 years in peace "in the country.
According to several local media, Benoît Maria was driving a van on a road near the indigenous village of San Antonio Ilotenango, some 85 km northwest of the capital Guatemala, when he was shot dead. The motive for this attack was not immediately known. The French embassy in Guatemala expressed in a press release its "consternation". She adds that she is in "contact with the Guatemalan authorities so that this crime is clarified and justice can be done quickly".
This attack came the day after the one that killed eight people in Niger on Sunday, including six French humanitarian workers from the NGO Acted. For the director of AVSF, also present in Niger, "humanitarian workers are increasingly confronted with this violence, organized crime, petty crime, and insecurity between armed groups". He calls for "a collective discussion" on the status and protection of humanitarian personnel.
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