Goma : a journalist from a community radio station assassinated

Yoshua Kambere Machozi, a journalist from the Mpeti community radio station, located in Walikale territory in the North Kivu province in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, was found dead after eight days of detention by M23 rebels, according to the radio station’s managers. His decomposing body was discovered on the banks of a river in the village of Katobi, four kilometers from the town of Mpeti in the same territory. Reporters Without Borders condemned this murder and demanded an independent investigation. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

Concordant sources affirm that the journalist was killed when he wanted to save the equipment of this local radio station during the fighting between the loyalist army supported by local militias maintained by the Congolese authorities and the M23 rebels who control a major part of the province of North Kivu.

Its director and the other journalists had already fled the atrocities. That was on October 29.

“For several days Yoshuwa Kambere Machozi could not be reached on his mobile phone and we wondered if he was still alive.
He had been a presenter of this radio station for more than 5 years and we had this bad news of his death today”, indicated Augustin Mbula, colleague of the missing man who spoke to SOS Médias Burundi on Wednesday. The body of our colleague was discovered on November 6.

The National Union of the Press of Congo UNPC, Walikale section, confirms this information.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF), an international organization based in Paris and campaigning for the rights of journalists and the media, condemned this murder.

“The terrible murder of this community radio journalist further confirms the alarmingly dangerous situation in which journalists are operating in eastern DRC. RSF strongly condemns this crime and calls on the authorities to do everything possible to guarantee the protection of information professionals, particularly in this area marked by armed conflict, where access to information is more necessary than ever. This tragic event also demonstrates the risks faced by community radio stations in the area, the primary relays of information, which must be protected,” Sadibou Marong, the head of RSF’s sub-Saharan Africa desk, said in a statement.

Other violence

Other journalists were victims of armed attacks in the city of Goma, the capital of North Kivu.

Patience Ngorora, a displaced journalist who is a member of the Synergy of Displaced Journalists from North Kivu and currently working for Kako FM radio, was the target of an armed robbery as she was leaving the radio station. The attack took place on November 11 in the capital of North Kivu.

“The journalist was approached by several armed individuals who robbed her of her belongings. The thugs took her phone, a dictaphone for her work, and a handbag containing $30. This theft not only caused material loss, but also raised serious concerns about the safety of journalists in the city of Goma during this period of the state of siege,” deplore local journalists.

Cases that are multiplying

According to the organization “Journalist in danger” JED- North Kivu section, this case is added to several others that have been documented in a single month, affecting displaced journalists. The latter were forced to abandon their environments to settle in the city of Goma while waiting for peace to return to their respective localities.

“We have listed more than 8 cases of journalists who have been threatened since the beginning of October and we regret what is happening to journalists,” says Tuver Wundi, provincial representative of JED.

Lawrence Kanyuka, the spokesperson for the M23, asked us to give him all the details on the local press that broadcast the information and the place in Walikale where the assassination took place before responding to us. At the time of publication of this article, he had not yet come back to our editorial staff.

The DRC is ranked 123rd out of 180 countries in the 2024 RSF World Press Freedom Index.

The M23 is a former Tutsi rebellion that took up arms again at the end of 2021, accusing Congolese authorities of not having respected their commitments on the reintegration of its fighters. Congolese authorities remain convinced that it benefits from support from Rwanda, which the Rwandan government continues to brush aside.

M23 fighters have controlled a major part of the province of North Kivu since mid-June 2022, including the city of Bunagana, on the border with Uganda, where they have set up their headquarters.