A Congolese journalist and local radio host was assassinated by unknown people in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), corroborating sources were told on Monday (May 10).
Barthélémy Kubanabandu Changamuka, 23, was killed in the night from Sunday to Monday by two unidentified armed men in the locality of Kitshanga, in the province of North Kivu, announced the Congolese NGO Journalist in danger (JED).
The journalist was killed by eight bullets fired at close range while he was in the enclosure of his home.
"The attackers only took his cell phone before they fled," JED said.
The information was confirmed to AFP by a colleague of the victim and by the local section of the National Press Union of Congo (UNPC), the main professional media organization in the country.
Barthélémy Kubanabandu was a journalist at Kitshanga Community Radio (Coraki FM), in Masisi territory, where he hosted a program called "Food Security", again according to JED.
"He had just presented his program on dietary obesity at 7 p.m."
Back at his home with a friend, "they saw two armed people appear" in the plot.
His friend "managed to escape by running into the house, while Barthélémy Kubanabandu was" hit by eight bullets, and "immediately succumbed to his injuries".
Quoted by JED, the witness and friend of the victim affirmed "to have the impression" that Barthélémy Kubanabandu "was spun by these armed men" and that he was "therefore targeted".
116 abuses in 2020
In February 2021, a Congolese journalist was shot and wounded in Goma, the capital of North Kivu, during a demonstration repressed by the police.
The last journalist killed in the DRC was in November 2019: Papy Mumbere Mahamba (35), a community radio host, involved in the fight against the Ebola virus, was murdered in Ituri, in the northeast.
This new murder of a journalist brings to sixteen the number of Congolese media professionals killed in the country over the past two decades.
Eastern Congolese, where a multitude of militias and armed groups have raged for years, is a particularly deadly region for journalists.
In 2020, 116 abuses were recorded against journalists by JED, a partner organization of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in the country.
On May 6, the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri were placed under a state of siege by President Félix Tshisekedi, in an attempt to curb violence there.
With AFP
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