(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an abridged version of a 30 March 2005 RSF statement: RSF has called for the launch of a thorough investigation into the vicious attack on Fofana Mambé, a photojournalist with the privately-owned daily “Soir Info”, on 29 March 2005. Mambé was brutally assaulted in Abidjan’s Plateau district, near a demonstration […]
(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an abridged version of a 30 March 2005 RSF statement:
RSF has called for the launch of a thorough investigation into the vicious attack on Fofana Mambé, a photojournalist with the privately-owned daily “Soir Info”, on 29 March 2005. Mambé was brutally assaulted in Abidjan’s Plateau district, near a demonstration of police officers who were demanding payment of their “war bonuses”.
On the morning of 29 March, Mambé went to Abidjan’s Plateau district to cover the police officers’ demonstration in front of the Internal Security Ministry building. The young officers were demanding that the government pay them the 45,000 CFA Franc (approx. US$90) bonus usually distributed twice monthly to front line combatants. The officers have not received their bonuses since August 2004. The journalist was driven to the scene by a “Soir Info” driver, in a vehicle clearly marked as “Press”.
Just as Mambé was interviewing a police officer on duty near the demonstration, he was viciously attacked by a group of demonstrators. His attackers clearly identified him as a journalist. According to a witness at the scene, about 50 demonstrators beat Mambé with belts and truncheons. He was taken to a local hospital, where he received seven stitches to the head. His left eye is also swollen. Doctors ordered him to rest for two weeks before returning to work.
