Zambian-born Rory Young, CEO and founder of anti-poaching organisation Chengeta Wildlife, and two Spanish journalists have been killed near Pama nature reserve in Burkina Faso.
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The victims were part of an anti-poaching patrol that was attacked on Monday, April 26. Burkina Faso officials later confirmed the deaths of Young and Spanish journalists David Beriain and Roberto Fraile. All three were abducted along with a local soldier whose status is unknown.
The two journalists were researching a documentary film project on how Burkina Faso authorities were tackling poaching, according to media house Movistar Plus.
At the time of the attack, the three men were travelling with an anti-poaching patrol with about 40 people, said Spain’s Foreign Minister Arancha González Laya. “It is a dangerous area where terrorists, bandits, and jihadists usually operate,” the minister said.
No one has claimed responsibility for the ambush which took place on a road to the forested Pama nature reserve in the east of the country near the border with Benin. The government said it had not identified the assailants, whom it described as “terrorists”.
Associated Press reports that two soldiers wounded in the attack and evacuated to a military hospital in the capital, Ouagadougou, told AP they were attacked by jihadists who outnumbered their patrol. One soldier was shot in the leg and the other in his arm, causing it to be amputated. They insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press. When the jihadists attacked, the soldiers tried to form a protective shield around the foreigners, but once the shooting stopped they realized they had disappeared, he said.
