Bodies of three Europeans killed in Burkina Faso arrive in Spain
TORREJÓN DE ARDOZ, Spain: The bodies of two Spanish journalists and an Irish wildlife activist killed during an a ack on an anti-poaching patrol in Burkina Faso arrived in Spain by military plane Friday.
The Airbus 310 carrying the bodies landed at a military airbase in Torrejón de Ardoz, east of Madrid, at 9am, an AFP correspondent said.
Journalists David Beriain and Roberto Fraile were accompanying Rory Young, head of the Chengeta Wildlife group, in Arly National Park on Monday when they were a acked.
They were with a group that included soldiers and forest rangers when they were ambushed by assailants in pickup trucks and on motorbikes.
The three Europeans were initially reported missing but a day later, the Burkina Faso authorities said they had been ‘executed by terrorists’.
Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya and
Defence Minister Margarita Robles were on the tarmac at the airbase when the plane landed, with the three wooden coffins carried out by 24 Spanish air force officers.
The plane had touched down in the capital Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou shortly a er midnight and took off two hours later with the three bodies on board, AFP correspondents said.
Burkina Faso, a landlocked country in the vast Sahel region, has been in the grip of an intensifying jihadist insurgency since 2015 which has ravaged its once-vibrant tourist industry.