A French photographer covering East and Central Africa was killed in the Central African Republic, Reuters reports, citing the president’s office.
Camille Lepage, 26, last posted that she was traveling with the Anti Balaka — a term that refers to Christian militias in the Central African Republic — to Amada Gaza, about 75 miles from Berberati, the third-largest city in the country.
Lepage’s caption reads: Travelling with the Anti Balaka to Amada Gaza, about 120km from Berberati, we left at 3.30am to avoid the Misca checkpoints and it took us 8 hours by motorbike as there is no proper roads to reach the village. In the region of Amada Gaza, 150 people were killed by the Seleka between March and now. Another attack took place on Sunday killing 6 people, the anti balaka Colonel Rock decides to send his elements there to patrol around and take people who fled to the bush back to their homes safely.
Nicolas Germain, a reporter with French 24, tweeted that French troops found her body after controlling a vehicle of anti-Balakas near Bouar in CAR, citing an official.
The French newspaper Le Monde is reporting that she was “murdered.”
According to Le Monde, French President François Hollande reportedly said “all necessary means will be implemented to make the light on the circumstances of the murder and find the murderers of our compatriot.”
Wilfrid Esteve, general manager of Hans Lucas, a French production agency that Lepage listed as her employer on her Facebook page, tweeted that he was “in shock.”
In an October 2013 interview with PetaPixel.com, Lepage, then identified as an independent French photographer living in South Sudan, spoke of her fascination with photography and the duties of the journalist:
Throughout my journalism degree at Southampton Solent University in the UK, we studied a lot of journalism’s ethics. I became very keen on the duty of a journalist to tell stories and make them accessible to a broad audience.
I also realized what the media agenda was, and how so many serious stories were missing from the headlines simply because they don’t fit within that agenda, or the advertising company’s interests. I can’t accept that people’s tragedies are silenced simply because no one can make money out of them. I decided to do it myself, and bring some light to them no matter what.
Colleagues and fans of her work immediately took to Twitter to remember the young, enterprising journalist.
Tragic news about Camille Lepage. I had met her in Bangui in December. She was just such a lovely person. It is devastating news.
— Nazanine Moshiri (@nazaninemoshiri) May 13, 2014
Unbelievably sad to hear about Camille Lepage's death. Spoke with her once from #CARcrisis. An intrepid photojournalist. Absolutely tragic.
— Evan Cinq-Mars 🇺🇦 (@ecinqmars) May 13, 2014
Below are nine beautiful photos from Camille’s Instagram feed that shine light on her work in the Central African Republic.
(via Mashable)
