Two Spanish journalists die in an attack in Burkina Faso

In a file image, Burkina Faso soldiers patrol near Ouagadougou SIA KAMBOU / AFP

The two Spanish journalists David Beriain and Roberto Fraile, who were missing since Monday in Burkina Faso after the convoy in which they were traveling through the east of the country was attacked by an armed group, have died, as reported by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, this Tuesday at the press conference after the Council of Ministers.

González Laya provided the initials of the journalists, DBA and RFF, and assured that he was waiting for a final confirmation to determine the identity of the bodies found in the area. Then, minutes before four in the afternoon, the President of the Government published the identities in a tweet and sent a message of condolences to the families of the two journalists: “The worst news is confirmed. All the affection for the relatives and friends of David Beriain and Roberto Fraile, murdered in Burkina Faso. And our recognition to those who, like them, carry out courageous and essential journalism from conflict zones on a daily basis ”.

Various security sources in the African country and others familiar with the matter in Spain confirmed the death of both. Local sources cited by the Agence France Press assure that two other people, an Irishman and a Burkinabe, are also missing and that at least three were injured during the attack.

The events occurred around nine in the morning on the road that connects Fada N'Gourma and Pama. The journalists had come to this area, close to the Arli National Park, to film a documentary about the Burkina Faso authorities' fight against poaching. The convoy, made up of two

pick-up

vehicles

and about 20 motorcycles in which journalists, environmental agents and a military security escort were traveling, left the town of Natiaboani in the morning and stopped at kilometer 60. The disappeared Spaniards they got out of one of the

pick-ups

and began to manipulate a drone to take aerial photographs, when the attack began.

🔴The Government says that the two Spanish disappeared after an attack in Burkina Faso have been found dead, although it is "awaiting a final confirmation"

They were journalists who were filming a documentary on the protection of natural parks from poachers pic.twitter .com / QAlA7ltjdn

- Europa Press (@europapress) April 27, 2021

Armed men broke into two vans and a dozen motorcycles, which caused the members of the convoy to disperse, according to security sources. Members of the escort and a foreign national who was injured managed to reach Natiaboani. The Spanish Embassy in Mali, accredited to Burkina Faso, has been in contact with the families of the two disappeared. "It is a dangerous area, a common field for terrorist groups and bandits," said González Laya.

Burkina Faso has become in recent years one of the countries most affected by the jihadist violence that is bleeding the Sahel. Since the first attacks took place in 2015 to the present, there have been some 5,000 fatalities, half of them in 2020 according to data from the NGO Acled, and more than a million internally displaced persons. Violence penetrated Burkina Faso from neighboring Mali through the north of the country, affecting mainly the Sahel region, but it spread rapidly to the North, Center-North and East regions, even reaching the south. The main jihadist groups operating in this country are Ansarul Islam, especially in the north, and the Islamic State of the Greater Sahara (EIGS), based in neighboring Niger, but very active in the east of Burkina Faso.

The last violent incident involving a Spaniard in Burkina Faso took place on February 15, 2019, when the Spanish missionary Antonio César Fernández Fernández was killed by a group of jihadists who attacked the customs post in the town of Nohao, in the south of the country. The Salesian was returning by road to his home in Ouagadougou after having participated in a meeting in Lomé, the capital of Togo.