Terrorists’ kill three European journalists in Burkina Faso

Two Spanish journalists and one Irish have been murdered in an attack on an anti-poaching patrol in Burkina Faso, officials said Tuesday.

“It is very unfortunate, but the three Westerners were executed by terrorists,” said a senior security source in the West African nation.

He did not specify who was behind Monday’s attack targeting the group — which included soldiers, forest rangers, and foreign reporters — in the eastern region of Fada N’Gourma-Pama.

At least three people were injured and one Burkinabe was believed to be among the missing.

(FILES) In this file photograph taken on September 29, 2015, Burkinabe gendarmes patrol near the Presidential Security Regiment (RSP) military barracks in Ouagadougou. – Burkina Faso security forces launched a massive manhunt on April 27, 2021, after the abduction of three Westerners along with a Burkinabe national, as a top security source warned at least two of them may have been killed. The group was abducted after an attack on an anti-poaching patrol in the landlocked West African nation, security and diplomatic sources said. A Spanish foreign ministry source told AFP in Madrid that two Spanish nationals were missing. A security source in Burkina Faso said an Irish man was also among the group. (Photo by Sia KAMBOU / AFP)

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez confirmed two Spaniards were killed, naming the two victims.

“The worst news is confirmed. All our affection for the relatives and friends of David Beriain and Roberto Fraile (de Baracaldo), who were murdered in Burkina Faso,” he tweeted.

He praised “those who, like them, carry out courageous and essential journalism from conflict zones”.

Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya told a news conference the two men were “making a documentary on the measures taken by Burkina Faso to protect national parks, to protect natural resources from poaching and to protect the populations living in the natural parks.”

– Seasoned reporters –
She said Beriain was from Pamplona in Spain’s north while Fraile was from the northern Basque country.

Beriain was a war reporter who worked for a now-defunct Spanish branch of CNN and had founded his own production house specialising in documentaries on illegal activities.

Fraile used to work for Spain’s CyLTV. According to Spanish media reports, he was wounded in Syria at the end of 2012 while covering the Free Syrian Army.

Both were described as seasoned war journalists.

Adriano Moran from Beriain’s production house 93Metros said they had only been in Burkina Faso for a short while.

“Both of them knew that it was difficult terrain and that such a thing may happen. And the worst happened,” he told Spain’s TVE.

“David was one of the great journalists of the country and the world,” he said. “He had received many prizes.”

Moran said Beriain had a satellite phone with him but had been incommunicado for the past few days.

Ireland’s foreign ministry did not confirm whether the third victim was a citizen but said it was working with officials in Burkina Faso.

“The department is aware of the reports and is liaising closely with international partners regarding the situation on the ground,” a spokeswoman said in a statement.

– ‘Great dangers‘ –
One of the poorest countries in the world, Burkina Faso is struggling with a ruthless insurgency by armed Islamists who swept in from neighbouring Mali in 2015.

Jihadist groups — some affiliated with Al-Qaeda and others to the Islamic State militant group — have launched increasing numbers of attacks in the country.

Almost 1,100 people have died and more than a million people have fled their homes.

The secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders, Christophe Deloire, decried the attack on “three journalists, two of whom were Spanish.

“This tragedy confirms the great dangers reporters face in the Sahel region,” he said on Twitter.

Monday’s killing was not the first targeted attack in the country.

A kidnapped priest was found dead in January days after he went missing in the jihadist-plagued southwest, his body found in a forest.

And last August, the grand imam of the northern town of Djibo turned up dead three days after gunmen stopped the car he was travelling in and kidnapped him.

In March 2019, a priest in Djibo was kidnapped, and in February 2018, a Catholic missionary, Cesar Fernandez, was murdered in the centre of the country.