Defence will repatriate the bodies of journalists David Beriáin and Roberto Fraile

The two journalists murdered in Burkina Faso, David Beriáin and Roberto Fraile, will be repatriated to Spain on a Ministry of Defence flight scheduled for Thursday.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has informed of the arrival of the bodies in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, where the repatriation process is beginning and is expected to be completed "as soon as possible". According to statements made to RTVE's Canal 24 horas, the Ministry's General for Consular Affairs, Juan Duarte, the bodies are expected to leave on Thursday night in an Air Force plane and land in Torrejón de Ardoz.

Activist Rory Young, co-founder of the NGO Chengeta Wildlife, will be repatriated on the same flight. Rory Young was accompanying the two journalists as a fixer in the area in the course of making a documentary that Beriáin and Fraile were filming about poaching in African wildlife parks. 

The families of both journalists remain "punctually informed" of every movement, as well as of the procedures being carried out by the Embassy, Foreign Affairs and Defence.

Following the sad news of their murder, the media condemned the attack and a minute's silence was observed in commemoration of the journalists both in the media and in journalism schools and universities.

Beriáin and Fraile, both highly recognised for their solid and sensitive journalistic approach to covering conflicts, had a long professional career behind them. Their murder was carried out by an act linked to jihadist terrorists, according to the Burkina Faso government. The country has been the victim of various terrorist attacks since 2015, linked to the Al-Qaeda terrorist network. The attacks perpetrated in the country are linked to Burkina Faso's local terrorist organisations, Ansarul Islam, the Sahel terrorist coalition Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (GSIM) and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (EIGS).  

Both journalists had covered the hottest spots on the planet, embedding themselves with Syrian militias at the height of the Syrian civil war and covering areas such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Sierra Leone, among many others.

In addition, Beriáin had been involved in various criminal drug trafficking networks and organisations in Latin America, directing major documentaries such as 'Amazonas Clandestino' ('Secret Amazon'), 'Genocidio en la Selva' ('Genocide in the Jungle') and 'Clandestino' ('Clandestine'). David Beriáin declared four years ago in an interview for the 20 minutos media that "it was worth risking my life" to tell these stories, "I go in order to learn myself, because there are questions I need to ask (...) Not because I like taking the risk, but I take it because I want to sit down and talk to these people". Beriáin continued the interview by stating that he tries to "find truths about human nature in the most extreme conditions of reality, where there is no room for imposture". 

According to the 2021 barometer prepared by Reporters Without Borders, eight journalists have been murdered so far this year, in addition to four murdered collaborators and 308 journalists who have been imprisoned while covering journalistic coverage.