Thursday, March 28, 2024

Congolese Security Agents Beat Up Journalists

A group of policemen on September 29, 2018 violently assaulted Justin Mwamba, a reporter working with Radiotélévision Ngoma ya Kivu on the orders of a senior police oficer.

 According to a member of the African Freedom of Expression Exchange (AFEX) in DRC, Journaliste en Danger (JED), a group of policemen following the orders of a senior police officer attacked Mwamba who was covering demonstrations by civil society groups against continued insecurity in the Bukavu town.  The police officers seized Mwamba by his clothes, threw him to the ground and beaten mercilessly. The demonstrations were sparked following the killing of a “money changer” by a group of armed men.

Narrating the incident to JED, Mwamba said the senior officer went ahead to instruct the other officers to beat him despite the fact he (Mwamba) had introduced himself as a journalist. “They beat me and seriously injured my jaw,” said Mwamba.

AFEX joins JED to condemn the recent attacks on the journalists and call on the police to expeditiously investigate into this issue and bring the culprits to book. The continued use of force and violence against journalists and media practitioners in DRC must come to an end.

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