The body of a radio journalist was discovered on Tuesday in western Tanzania, bringing to two the number of reporters killed in the East African country in the past six months, and since IPI started tracking journalist deaths in 1997.
Issa Ngumba, 45, was found hanging in a forest by Kakonko town, near the western city of Kigoma, with a gunshot wound in his left arm, according to reports by the Daily Monitor and the Citizen. The journalist, who worked for Radio Kwizera, had reportedly been missing since Saturday. The motive for his murder is unclear.
“The Tanzanian authorities must investigate Issa Ngumba’s murder and ensure that the killer or killers are brought to justice,” said IPI Deputy Director Anthony Mills. “These two killings are an alarming development in a country where for years there have been no reports of journalist killings.
TV journalist Daudi Mwangosi died on Sep. 2, 2012 after he was struck by a police tear gas canister that was reportedly fired to disperse opposition members at a rally in Iringa. He was the first journalist to be killed in Tanzania in recent years. The Media Council of Tanzania (MCT) and the Tanzania Editors Forum (TEF) established a three-member team to investigate his death which concluded that Mwangosi was killed in a police operation.
The MCT website reported: “The late Mwangosi who was the Chairperson of the Iringa Press Club was surrounded by around seven policemen who brutally thumped and eventually he was blasted to death by a teargas canister.”