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| Camille Lepage via a Facebook tribute page. |
By
Abdoulaye Bah
Conflicts on the African continent claimed another journalist last
week. Camille Lepage, a 26-year-old French photojournalist, is the
latest reporter to pay the ultimate price for trying to inform the world
of the violence against unarmed civilians in the Central African
Republic (CAR).
Lepage’s body was found on
May 15 by French peacekeepers in a village near the town of Bouar, CAR,
in a car driven by Christian militia fighters known as Anti-Balaka.
The Central African Republic has been marred by
conflict since 2012 when
the Muslim faction Seleka and the Anti-Balaka began warring over
control of the territory. Lepage is the first western journalist to be
killed in the fighting.
She specialized in photojournalism in Africa, notably in Egypt, South
Sudan and the Central African Republic. She explained that her
motivation was to cover news stories that mainstream media tend to
ignore. “I can’t accept that people’s tragedies are silenced simply
because no one can make money out of them,” she
said.
Emotions ran high after the news of her death broke, especially among
her colleagues in the news industry and in communities with an interest
in human rights and African affairs.
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| Photography was Camille Lepage's passion. She strove to document abuses
against unarmed civilians in war-torn regions worldwide. This photo she
took in Jonglei state, South Sudan, was chosen for the cover of the latest Human Rights Watch report. Read the report here. |
Writer Gannon Burgett
wrote an emotional eulogy on petapixel.com, in which he described Lepage's website as a “leading blog covering the wonderful world of photography”:
Heart-breaking news came out of Bangui, Central African
Republic today. It has been confirmed that 26-year-old French
photojournalist Camille Lepage, who we had the honor of interviewing just six months ago, has been killed while covering the ongoing crisis there
[...]
She had a passion for shedding light on the world’s ignored
conflicts, and her compassion and dedication for her craft and her
subject alike seem to shine through with every snap of the shutter. The
French Presidency has released a statement saying that, “All means
necessary will be used to shed light on to the circumstances of this
murder and to find her killers.”
This article elicited several reactions from readers. Commenter “
tiger” wrote:
The conflict in Central Africa is very intense and dangerous and what
you would call a red zone. It is actually one of the more dangerous
areas in Africa. A very dangerous job I doubt many photo journalists
would want to take. It was very courageous of her and not only that she
was with one of the militia forces. It is very possible that while she
was riding around with them, they were flanked by the opposing militia
force and taken out by surprise. Very sad for such a young person with a
lot of potential.
Based on his personal experience as a reporter in Mexico, “
Ridgecity“ wrote about how the death of a fellow reporter touched him:
Tragic loss, even not knowing her, seeing a fellow photographer have a
tragic death is horrible. There are trendy magazines like Roling [sic]
Stone or Vice Magazine that like to cover these human crisis and offer
young people jobs like this, and don't even consider their security.
Sadly, this happens all the time when photographers think they are
untouchable with a extremely dangerous “I'm the press” mentality.
I live in Mexico and this place is the worst ever for journalists and
even regular photographers. You ALWAYS have to put your safety first
and don't think twice about leaving any place where someone has a
weapon. They always target the cameras first. That's something they
don't teach you in college.
In the interview mentioned above, Lepage explained to
Gregory Eddi Jones how she came to be
involved in African affairs:
Since I was very little, I’ve always wanted to go and
live in a place where no one else wants to go, and cover in-depth
conflict related stories. I followed thoroughly the independence process
of South Sudan and was shocked by the little coverage it got… plus all
the pessimism around it really annoyed me.
Then, while doing research, I discovered the conflict in the Nuba
Mountains. I became even more outraged by the fact that, except from a
few media, no one talked about it. It became an obvious choice, I had to
go and report from there. Yet, as a first experience in Africa, it
seemed like a dangerous one. So I was trying to find alternatives.
I thought about moving to Uganda and going back and forth between the
two countries. Then I realized I could probably get a job in a local
paper and start within a structure instead of throwing myself out there
with no contact, no portfolio and above all very little experience. So
that’s what I did.
A reader of the French daily newspaper Le Figaro,
Jacques Vissy, wrote the following about Lepage's legacy:
One
can only respect her will and be in awe of her courage. She left us too
soon but her sense of commitment to the facts and the truth already
makes her as a worthy successor of such great journalists such as Capa,
McCullin and Schoendoerffer.
Before her CAR assignment, Lepage worked in South Sudan. The
variety of subjects she
covered is impressive. A snippet of her assignments for mainstream
media, NGOs and humanitarian institutions can be seen on her blog:
At 26, she had already been published by the following
media outlets:
The New York Times, Time Magazine, Le Monde, Vice, The Sunday Times,
The Guardian, BBC, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Amnesty Press,
LA Times, Al Jazeera, Libération, Le Parisien Magazine, Le Parisien, Le
Nouvel Observateur, Jeune Afrique, La Croix, Internazionale, DVAfoto,
Le Journal de la Photographie and more.
The following organizations also published her work: Human Rights
Watch, Médecins Sans Frontières, International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC), Amnesty International, Mercy Corps, Handicap
International, World Food Programme, Internews, Crown Agents,
Solidarité.
The last message she posted on Facebook
reported the danger Muslims face in the CAR:
Muslim men take a taxi from the IDP camp in Bangui after
the evening prayer to go to the bus station and take a bus to Cameroon
on the next day. They have no other choice but to leave at dark so the
local population won't see them and hopefully won't attack them.
In Bangui, attacks on Muslims take place everyday in the last 3 areas
where Muslim remain. The attackers want them to leave or die and will do
everything they can so no Muslim remain in the country.
Merci Camille.
Reprinted with permission from Global Voices.
