RFI announces winners of the 2020 Dupont-Verlon scholarship

A journalist from Cameroon and a technician from Burkina-Faso have been named as the winners of the seventh Dupont-Verlon prize, established in honour of Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon, kidnapped and murdered seven years ago in Mali while reporting for RFI.

The 2020 winners of the Dupont-Verlon scholarship are Charles Abossolo Oba, a journalist from Cameroon, and Romain Roguinesida Bouda, a sound technician from Burkina-Faso.

They will each benefit from a four-week, all-expenses-paid, training course in Paris. The date of their visit to the French capital remains to be confirmed because of the coronavirus health crisis, but the first quarter of 2021 has been pencilled in.

This is the seventh time the prize has been awarded. The two laureats were chosen from several hundred entries. Twenty short-listed candidates, from 13 different countries, were asked to produce sample work.

The journalists were asked to report on the theme "Dialogue and tolerance," while the sound engineers had to work on the topic of "Surviving on the street".

Charles Abossolo Oba is a 29-year-old graduate of the Ecole Supérieure des Sciences et Techniques de l'Information et de la Communication in Yaoundé. He works for the national broadcaster Cameroon Radio and Television.

Romain Roguinesida Bouda is 32 and also works for his national broadcaster, Burkina Radio and TV.

The winning entries can be heard on the RFI French service site, under the program title "Afrique midi".