Kinshasa (AFP)

A Congolese journalist and host of a local radio station was assassinated by unknown persons in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), corroborating sources were told on Monday.

Barthélemy 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 the local section of the National Press Union of Congo (UNPC), the main professional media organization in the country.

Mr. 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 devoted to 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 Mr. Kubanabandu "was spun by these armed men" and that he was "therefore targeted".

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 journalist brings to sixteen the number of Congolese media professionals killed in the last two decades in the country.

Eastern Congolese, where a multitude of militias and armed groups have raged for years, is a particularly deadly region for journalists.

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.

In 2020, 116 abuses against journalists were recorded in the DRC by JED, a partner organization of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in the country.

"During the Kabila years (Joseph, ex-president until January 2019), the trivialization of violence developed with total impunity, and the sponsors of the assassinations of the 10 journalists killed under his presidency have never been translated into justice ", recalls RSF on its website.

"Although they experienced a slight decline with the arrival of new President Félix Tshisekedi, in January 2019, attacks on press freedom remain at an alarming level," according to this organization.

© 2021 AFP