Photographer Shot Dead While Filming Tribe in Ethiopia
Further details have emerged after a travel photographer was murdered this week while filming a documentary about the Mursi tribe in Ethiopia.
Travel photographer Toni Espadas was killed on Monday while filming the Mursi tribe in Ethiopia for well-known documentary series Partners of the World (Socios por el Mundo) for Chilean television station Canal 13.
According to the Chilean newspaper El Mercurio, as reported by El Pais, Espadas was driving a jeep with camera equipment back to the hotel after filming the Mursi tribe in the Omo national park.
The 54-year-old photographer was reportedly accompanied by two acquaintances, presenters Francisco Pancho Saavedra and Jorge Zabaleta, in the vehicle.
It was then that two criminals armed with machine guns and traveling on foot attacked the jeep. It is assumed to have been an attempted robbery.
According to El Pais, Espadas was shot down at point-blank range. Zabaleta then took control of the vehicle and managed to escape at full speed along the road.
Later, the rest of the television documentary crew reportedly came to their aid, traveling in two cars further back.
However, Espadas — who was based in Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain — died “minutes after” the attack. The other members of the filming crew were unharmed.
According to El Pais, Spanish-based news agency EFE reports that Ethiopian authorities detained “some” suspects in the Espadas murder, but did not specify the number of individuals. Previous reports stated that the attackers are not believed to have been members of the Mursi tribe.
Spanish newspaper Sur reports that the Chilean foreign ministry and Canal 13 “are taking all the steps so that they [the documentary crew] can leave the country as soon as possible, return to Chile, and provide them with all the assistance they need.”
Spanish and Catalan authorities are working together with Ethiopian officials to uncover the cause of Espadas’ death.
“As Canal 13, we deeply regret the death of Toni, and from a distance, we send his family all our support,” a spokesperson for the television station says in a statement.
The Catalan foreign minister Meritzell Serret says that the government would “move forward with the appropriate arrangements,” including providing “psychological support” for the photographer’s family.
Espadas, who worked as a travel photographer and tour guide, was known as an expert on Africa — a continent he had been visiting for over two decades.
According to his website, he opened his first travel agency in Ethiopia in 2010, which he later expanded to countries such as Uganda, Tanzania, Gabon, Eritrea, Benin, Angola, and South Sudan.
“For some years now, I have been advising journalists and production companies, working as a fixer for the production of reports, documentaries, and television shows focusing on the study of African peoples and cultures,” Espadas wrote on his website.
Update 5/24: This article has been updated with further details surrounding Toni Espadas’ murder.
Image credits: Header photo via Instagram/Toni Espadas.
