Journalist shot dead in Gambia

2004-12-17 14:18

Dakar - The AFP correspondent in the Gambian capital Banjul, Deida Hydara, was shot and killed overnight on Friday, his colleagues and family told AFP by telephone.

Hydara, 58, was shot and died instantly shortly after midnight as he was dropping off colleagues from the newspaper The Point, of which he was co-editor with Pape Saine.

"He was shot in the head, three bullets. I was not there," an audibly shaken Saine told AFP by telephone.

Two of Hydara's female colleagues were wounded, he added, but the seriousness of their injuries was not known.

Hydara's family had earlier told AFP about the killing, saying the veteran journalist had died on the spot after being shot just after midnight, but adding that they did not know the precise circumstances surrounding his death.

The Banjul-based director of private Senegalese radio network Sud FM, Pape Diomaye Thiare, told AFP that Hydara's body had been taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital, where it was being attended by friends and colleagues including Demba Ali Diao, the head of the Gambia Press Union.

'No idea who did this'

"We have no idea who did this, there are no identified suspects," said Thiare. "We are all shocked and dismayed - I was with him yesterday, to interview him."

Union boss Diao told AFP that a funeral was planned for 17:00 on Friday, in accordance with Muslim tradition, but that a memorial service would take place next week to give Hydara's wife and children time enough to return from their homes in Britain.

"Everybody is so surprised, why would anyone want to kill Deida? He had such a pleasant character and was a veteran journalist in this country," Diao said.

"He has been very critical of the government and very vocal in opposition to these repressive laws but that does not mean that he, of all people, should have been the target of an assassin's bullet."

Hydara had worked for AFP since 1974, beginning his career with the agency as a translator.

In 1994 he became a correspondent for the Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres in the former colony, which earlier this week passed two laws that stiffened penalties for journalists accused of libel.

Leonard Vincent, the head of RSF's Africa service, said that he and RSF director Robert Menard would travel in the coming days to the tiny west African country for a memorial service and to ensure that an investigation into Hydara's death is opened without delay.

- AFP