Armed men, including one dressed in police uniform, kidnapped and assaulted Togolese TV journalist Roland Yaovi Kodjo on September 5 after mistaking him for a different, politically outspoken media figure, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported on September 11.
Kodjo, a sports and culture reporter and camera operator for Tampa TV, was abducted while covering a traditional festival in Guérin-Kouka, northern Togo. His attackers had mistaken him for Francisco Napo-Koura, a publishing director known for political commentary.
Upon realizing their error, the assailants assaulted Kodjo with slaps and punches and demanded information about his employer, before releasing him blindfolded hours later near the Ghanaian border, roughly 55 kilometers from the abduction site.
“The kidnapping and assault of Roland Yaovi Kodjo is a grave act of intimidation that must not be allowed to go unpunished,” said Moussa Ngom, CPJ’s Francophone Africa representative.
CPJ noted the incident marks the third documented journalist-seizure case in sub-Saharan Africa within the same month, and the involvement of a man in police uniform has raised questions about possible state complicity in the attack.
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