(CPJ/IFEX) – Edward Smith, a reporter with the British Broadcasting Service (BBC), was killed in an ambush in the village of Banbanduhun during the afternoon of 13 April 1998. Smith, who covered the northeastern region (Makeni and Kono districts) of Sierra Leone for the BBC since the Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC) took power in […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – Edward Smith, a reporter with the British Broadcasting Service
(BBC), was killed in an ambush in the village of Banbanduhun during the
afternoon of 13 April 1998. Smith, who covered the northeastern region
(Makeni and Kono districts) of Sierra Leone for the BBC since the Armed
Forces Ruling Council (AFRC) took power in May 1997, was traveling with West
African peacekeeping (ECOMOG) soldiers in the Kono district when their
vehicles were ambushed by junta forces. Smith was a well-respected career
journalist who had previously worked as a reporter for Sierra Leone’s
independent “Vision” newspaper and as an editor of “The Storm” newspaper for
approximately five years.
An ECOMOG soldier was also killed in the ambush and CPJ sources report that
numerous individuals who had their limbs amputated by junta forces are now
being treated in Freetown’s Connaught Hospital after surviving a 17-hour
journey from Banbanduhun.
