MADRID, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya confirmed on Tuesday that two Spanish journalists have been killed in an ambush in the West African country of Burkina Faso.
The two journalists, named David Beriain and Roberto Fraile, were filming a documentary about efforts to prevent poaching in the country.
They formed part of a group of around 40 people, including other reporters, soldiers and anti-poaching rangers, who were carrying out an anti-poaching patrol in the Pama nature reserve in the southeast of the country, close to the border with Benin.
This patrol was ambushed by attackers who were reported to have used two pickup trucks and around a dozen motorbikes. Several people were injured by gunfire in the initial attack, while the two Spaniards and an Irish reporter were kidnapped and subsequently murdered by the attackers.
"At the moment, after being in contact with the authorities in Burkina Faso and with the families, we can confirm the bodies of the two Spanish reporters have been discovered," said Gonzalez Laya at a press conference following Tuesday's cabinet meeting.
She warned that the region where the attack was carried out "is a dangerous area as it is habitually used by terrorist groups, poachers and jihadists."
Nine Spanish journalists have died while working abroad since 1980, with perhaps the most famous case being that of Jose Couso, a cameraman who died after a U.S. army tank fired a shell into the hotel where he and other journalists were staying during the Iraq war in 2003. Enditem
