Bitoumbo, a journalist with the station Radio Liberté and the former editor-in-chief of the privately owned newspaper La Rue Meurt, was gunned down at point-blank range by an armed group known as the Ninja militia, which was loyal to former prime minister Bernard Koleas. Bituoumbo was on assignment, accompanying Minister of Mining and Industry Michel Mampouya on a trip to Mindouli, west of Brazzaville, when the militia took the group hostage. Bitoumbo was reportedly the only hostage killed.