(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an abridged version of a 13 December 2007 RSF press release: Journalist goes into hiding after escaping arrest by Anjouan security forces RSF has expressed concerns about the safety of journalist Kamal Ali Yahoudha, head of the Anjouan branch of the Comoros Islands national broadcaster (Office de radio et télévision […]
(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an abridged version of a 13 December 2007 RSF press release:
Journalist goes into hiding after escaping arrest by Anjouan security forces
RSF has expressed concerns about the safety of journalist Kamal Ali Yahoudha, head of the Anjouan branch of the Comoros Islands national broadcaster (Office de radio et télévision des Comores, ORTC). The journalist went into hiding on 1 December 2007, after narrowly escaping arrest by security forces from the island’s rebel. He had been alerted a few hours earlier and had time to flee.
In a phone interview, Yahoudha said he feared having been placed on a list of people to arrest due to their presumed hostility to Anjouan’s rebel government and its self-proclaimed president, Colonel Mohamed Bacar add: The journalist said tension had been growing on the island and there were rumours of an imminent arrival of armed forces from the Comoros national government.
Yahoudha was the head of the Anjouan branch of the ORTC until the station’s closure in May by Bacar’s rebel government.
