April 29 (UPI) — Two Spanish journalists and a third foreign national were killed in Burkina Faso after they were kidnapped on Monday, officials said on Tuesday.
Christophe Deloire, secretary general of Reporters Without Borders, confirmed that the three journalists who were investigating poaching in Burkina Faso were killed in the eastern part of the country.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez sent condolences to the families of the two Spanish nationals and identified them in a tweet.
“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 for those who, like them, carry out courageous and essential journalism from conflict zones on a daily basis,” he wrote.
Beriain, 43, had reported from Afghanistan, Congo, Iraq and Libya in addition to directing a documentary about the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan. Roberto Fraile, 47, covered multiple conflicts and had been injured while covering the civil war in Syria in 2012.
The third victim had not been identified as of Tuesday night.
They were part of a group of 40 people who were ambushed at a nature reserve in eastern Burkina Faso, Spain’s foreign minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya said, according to The New York Times.
Six people were injured in the attack and a Burkinabe soldier was still missing on Tuesday.
In a statement on Tuesday, authorities in Burkina Faso said the country had faced “a resurgence of terrorist acts” beginning Sunday as about 10 people had been killed in multiple attacks.
