DRC

Hundreds turn out for funeral of journalist

Article published on the 2008-11-24 Latest update 2008-11-24 15:27 TU

Didace Namujimbo
(Credit: N. Sur/Radio Okapi)

Hundreds of people attended the funeral of journalist Didace Namujimbo on Monday in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo. Namujimbo was a journalist for UN-sponsored Radio Okapi who was murdered last Friday in the restive eastern part of the country. Unknown assailants shot him point-blank in the neck near his home after he was dropped off by a UN vehicle.

About 500 people attended the service, which was preceded by another, smaller service at the Bukavu regional headquarters of the UN Peacekeeping mission to the Congo (Monuc).

"Didace was a knight of peace. His colleagues... should always continue to raise the torch of Radio Okapi," said Monuc’s eastern Congo Co-ordinator Alpha Sow.

The funeral cortege ended at Bukavu's Notre Dame cathedral, where friends and family paid their last respects to the 34-year-old father of three.

"We are deeply shocked by the horrible crime against Didace Namujimbo," said French Ambassador to the DRC, Pierre Jacquemont.

"We send our condolences to his family and also to the journalism community," he added.

The UN said Saturday that the authorities had launched an investigation into Namujimbo’s death. They still have no indications as to who might be responsible or any motive.

"We are calling on both the civilian and military authorities to do everything possible to make sure the perpetrators of the crime are rapidly found and that, this time, they are punished," said MONUC official Dedi Furume.

Another Radio Okapi journalist, Serge Maheshe, was killed 17 months ago under similar circumstances.

"Something should have been done after the first killing," Leonard Vincent, the news editor for Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based organisation, told RFI.

"When they put the accused [of Maheshe's murder] on trial it was just a fiasco,” said Vincent. “It paved the way for this second murder.”

Reporters Without Borders considers Bukavu a "Little Somalia", as the only place where journalists are killed with impunity as they are in Somalia.

UN-sponsored Radio Okapi is also backed by Fondation Hirondelle, a Swiss organisation. Its director, Jean-Marie Etter told RFI that while the situation in Bukavu has become "too dangerous”, he is not going to pull funding.

"On the contrary, I think that quite obviously what Okapi is doing in the DRC is extremely needed, is extremely important," said Etter. "The people who listen to Okapi, the first radio in the country, say quite clearly that for them this radio means hope, and this radio is a symbol of something that is working properly."