(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has voiced deep concern over the 28 August 2004 disappearance of journalist Amadou Dagnogo, a correspondent in Bouaké for the daily “L’Inter”. Bouaké is a city in Côte d’Ivoire’s central region and a stronghold of the New Forces (Forces nouvelles, FN), the former rebels who control the north of the country. Dagnogo […]
(RSF/IFEX) – RSF has voiced deep concern over the 28 August 2004 disappearance of journalist Amadou Dagnogo, a correspondent in Bouaké for the daily “L’Inter”. Bouaké is a city in Côte d’Ivoire’s central region and a stronghold of the New Forces (Forces nouvelles, FN), the former rebels who control the north of the country. Dagnogo had been publicly threatened by FN members before he went missing.
“Whatever may have happened to Amadou Dagnogo, the menacing language used by FN leaders is unacceptable,” RSF said. “Without accusing anyone, we call for an explanation of the threats made against a journalist whose reporting never strayed into the language of hate so common in Côte d’Ivoire.”
“Furthermore, if the FN has any information about Dagnogo’s fate, we urge them to make it known. Journalists must be able to work safely throughout Côte d’Ivoire,” RSF added.
Dagnogo has not been seen since 28 August. None of his friends or family members have had any word of him since then, RSF was told in Bouaké. His belongings are still in his home. In the days prior to his disappearance, he told his editors he feared for his life and that he had “escaped an ambush” by two men in plainclothes who tried to arrest him.
“L’Inter” editor-in-chief Charles d’Almeida said Dagnogo was summoned to FN headquarters after the ambush attempt and was explicitly warned that the reports in his newspaper were putting his life in danger.
RSF is particularly troubled by the fact that, four days before Dagnogo went missing, the FN director of communications, Warrant Officer Antoine Beugré, indicated to him in a letter that he was refusing “L’Inter” permission to prepare a report in Bouaké and the northern town of Korhogo.
In his letter, dated 24 August, Beugré wrote, “This decision is the result of the murky game being played by your newspaper, which has been publishing false reports, misinforming Ivoirians for several months and indulging in an unhealthy game of fictitious journalism with disregard for the safety of its correspondents residing in Bouaké and Korhogo.”
Dagnogo had recently reported on the tension within the former rebel forces, in particular, the split between Staff Sergeant Ibrahim Coulibaly and FN General Secretary and Communications Minister Guillaume Soro. In a 14 July article, Dagnogo also reported on public threats by Kani Mayor Meité Yaya against those who tried to “divide the north”, including Yaya’s call to FN leaders to “systematically execute the black sheep.”
The climate of hostility towards certain journalists fostered by the FN in the north has worsened in recent months. The Ivorian Popular Movement of the Great West (Mouvement populaire ivoirien du Grand Ouest, MPIGO), an FN faction, declared in an “editorial” on its website that the areas under its control were a “forbidden zone for fans of false information” and referred to the “polite refusal” in August of “L’Inter”‘s request to conduct a report in the region.
Dagnogo was appointed as “L’Inter” correspondent in Bouaké in May, replacing Baba Coulibaly, who now works in Abidjan. Coulibaly had also received threats from FN leaders, as had at least three other journalists in the north of the country who were questioned in September by RSF.
A family source reportedly told a local journalist that Dagnogo had fled to Mali, but RSF has not been able to confirm this information.
