© Sergei Savostyanov/TASS
Flowers brought to the Central House of Journalists in Moscow in memory of three Russian journalists killed in the Central African Republic.
Flowers brought to the Central House of Journalists in Moscow in memory of three Russian journalists killed in the Central African Republic.
The three men have been named as journalist Orhan Dzhemal, director Aleksandr Rastorguyev, and cameraman Kirill Radchenko. Dzhemal was a well-known war correspondent, who had been wounded while reporting from Syria, while Rastorguyev had been awarded multiple prizes for his documentaries. The Russian foreign ministry said that press documents in their names have been found, while relatives of the dead have told the media that they have identified them from photographs taken after their deaths, and an investigation has been opened into the incident in Moscow.
AFP reported that the men had been attacked at a roadblock 23km from the central town of Sibut, located inside one of the world's poorest and most unstable countries, which is divided between warring fiefdoms. A local police source told Interfax news agency that robbery was the suspected motive of the attack.
Comment: According to The Guardian, the journalists had been working on a film in a partnership with investigative media outlet TsUR, run by the exiled Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky. Russian media reported the journalists were covering a story on a private Russian security company operating in Central African Republic.