Yesterday afternoon, Irene Cordón, widow of Toni Espadas -who died while traveling with the hosts of the Channel 13 program Partners around the world, Francisco Saavedra and Jorge Zabaleta– provided more background information on the moments surrounding the death of the Spanish guide and photographer.
The death of Espadas occurred last Monday, May 20, when together with Saavedra and Zabaleta they were recording a tribe of Ethiopiathe Mursi. From Channel 13 they stated that Espadas did not die from an attack, it was committed by some tribe, but rather it was “a criminal act”: an unidentified subject fired shots at the professionals for unknown reasons.
However, Irene Cordón maintained that “It was neither an attack, nor a shooting, nor an ambush and they were not expecting them.”. It was a shot that could have hit the rearview mirror of the car he was driving, but was unlucky enough to hit Toni’s head.”
“Everything had gone very well, and on the way back, heading towards a restaurant near Jinka, capital of the Debub Omo Zone, in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples region, They heard disturbances and took a secondary road to avoid them“, says Cordón in conversation with the Catalan media The newspaper.
Along with this, Espadas’ wife assured that the team vehicle had an open window. Then, “they saw two young men, one of them with a Kalashnikov [un arma más conocida como AK-47] in the hand. It seemed like they were telling them to stop the car. Toni continued walking and slowly approached the two young people. Then one of them fired and the bullet hit Toni’s head, causing her immediate death.”.
“No one expected that this bullet would hit Toni and end her life. The two young men turned pale and ran away after fearing that their shot could have killed someone,” he added.
The director of the travel agency Rift Valleyto which Toni Espadas belonged, Adrià Grau, declared: “Toni, precisely, in this filming, I wanted to emphasize that these tribes are not violent and that some of them are armed to defend their herds of cattle. They are very hospitable people, aware that tourism is a source of income and a very important economic resource to sustain these local populations.”
