Goma: a journalist detained by intelligence

Jimmy Shukrani Bakomera, correspondent for the VOA (Voice of America) Kirundi-Kinyarwanda is detained by Congolese intelligence since Thursday. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

Our colleague was arrested this Thursday midday at Karuba locality in the territory of Masisi, North Kivu province, eastern DRC.

“He told me that he was going to cover a report on the registration of voters in the eastern region which should start this Thursday,” said a journalist who had spoken to the VOA correspondent before he went to the field.

Jimmy Shukrani Bakomera is held in an intelligence cell in Goma (capital of North Kivu).

“Tomorrow we are transferring Jimmy to Kinshasa for collaborating with the M23,” the office of the ANR (National Intelligence Agency) in Goma told SOS Médias Burundi.

“He is not allowed to talk to people,” the agency added.

Last January, our colleague was injured by police while covering a demonstration against the EAC force in the city of Goma. Other journalists had been arrested and injured as well. The Voice of America had not yet commented on the arrest of its employee at the time of posting this article.

Several reporters have recently been arrested by the Congolese security services and held in police or army cells without their employer and family being informed.

The DRC occupies 125th place (out of 180) in the latest world ranking of press freedom established by the organization for the defense of the rights of journalists Reporters Without Borders (RSF).