The Spanish Foreign Minister, Arancha Gonzalez Laya, announced at a press conference that the journalist was killed David Beriain, 44, and the cameraman Roberto Fraile, 47 years old: they are the two Spanish reporters kidnapped by a group of armed men who yesterday attacked an anti-poaching patrol, with reporters in tow, in eastern Burkina Faso. The bodies of the two reporters, the minister added, were found in the ambush site and the information is still “confused” at the moment.
The news has not yet been confirmed by the Burkina Faso authorities. The Irish journalist who was allegedly kidnapped together with his Iberian colleagues was also killed while still no news of the Burkinabé citizen, part of the security personnel, who was reported missing following the attack. The reporters were performing a report on illegal hunting. In the east of Burkina Faso there are numerous jihadist militias but it is not clear whether the ambush is attributable to them or to common criminals.
To reveal their identity is the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez. “The worst news is confirmed. All the affection for family members and relatives”, writes Sanchez on Twitter, expressing “recognition of those who, like these, carried out courageous and essential journalism every day from the areas of conflict”. Both reporters had experience in crisis areas. Friar, born in Salamanca and father of two children, had worked in Syria, where he was injured while following the Free Syrian Army.
Originally from Navarre, Beriain had performed services in numerous conflict scenarios, including Colombia, Pakistan e Sudan. Beriain had also made a documentary on the ‘Ndrangheta,’ Clandestino ‘, which had cost him an investigation of the Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office for fraud in competition together with three other suspects. According to the allegations, the documentary, which had been broadcast in November 2019 by the television channel ‘Nove’, contained reconstructed sequences with actors in the studio that had been presented as footage of real criminal activities carried out by undercover reporters.