Conflicts on the African continent claimed another journalist last week. Camille Lepage, a 26-year-old French photojournalist, is the latest reporter to pay the ultimate price for trying to inform the world of the violence against unarmed civilians in the Central African Republic (CAR).
Lepage’s body was found on May 15 by French peacekeepers in a village near the town of Bouar, CAR, in a car driven by Christian militia fighters known as Anti-Balaka.
The Central African Republic has been marred by conflict since 2012 when the Muslim faction Seleka and the Anti-Balaka began warring over control of the territory. Lepage is the first western journalist to be killed in the fighting.
She specialized in photojournalism in Africa, notably in Egypt, South Sudan and the Central African Republic. She explained that her motivation was to cover news stories that mainstream media tend to ignore. “I can’t accept that people’s tragedies are silenced simply because no one can make money out of them,” she said.
Emotions ran high after the news of her death broke, especially among her colleagues in the news industry and in communities with an interest in human rights and African affairs.
Written byAbdoulaye Bah
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