The body of Ivoirian journalist Kloueu Gonzreu, 51, who worked for the state-owned Ivoirian Press Agency and the Red Cross, was found in March near the western town of Toulépleu, on the border of Liberia, by a team from the Red Cross. His body was found with those of his 19-year-old son and two local Red Cross volunteers.
The victims reportedly disappeared on January 11. Local journalists told CPJ at the time they believed that Gonzreu had been kidnapped and killed by Liberian mercenaries fighting for the Ivoirian government, and that his death could have been linked to his work as a journalist. The pro-government newspaper Notre Pays, in its January 30 edition, had accused him of “voicing sympathy with the rebellion.”
However, the circumstances of his death remain murky, and some have also raised the possibility that he was killed in crossfire during an upsurge of fighting in early 2003 between government and rebel forces there. Because Toulépleu is remote with no government authority ruling it, no inquiry has been conducted.