HEARTBREAKING: Beloved BBC star d!es after ‘short illness’ as tributes paid to ‘legendary figure’
Tributes have flooded in for the veteran BBC correspondent.
A BBC journalist has sadly d!ed (Image: Getty)
BBC correspondent Mark Doyle has sadly d!ed at the age of just 67 after a “short illness”. Best known for his work with BBC Africa since 1986, Mark was promoted to East Africa correspondent in the early 90s and made his mark covering the Rwandan genocide, along with Sierra Leone’s civil war and the conflict in Liberia.
Mark left the BBC in 2015 when he was BBC World Affairs correspondent, after “staying longer than any” other BBC journalist during the Rwanda genocide. Tributes have flooded in from his former colleagues, with BBC foreign editor Paul Danahar branding him a “legendary figure” who was also a “brilliant, brave, empathetic reporter.”
In 2015, to mark his leaving the broadcaster, his colleague Fergal Keane said of his work in Rwanda: “He stayed longer than any of us.
“Those who were in that awful place at that awful time will know what Mark Doyle gave for the cause of truth and for the BBC.”
He was known as a “tall, forceful but self-effacing character” by Africa correspondent Andrew Harding, who said Mark was “seized by an impulse to question, to understand, to get to the bottom of things.”
Mark Doyle has sadly d!ed aged 67 (Image: BBC)
Mark himself opened up in an interview about his work in Rwanda, admitting he saw people being attacked in heartbreaking scenes.
He told Frontline: “I saw people being attacked. Whether I saw the final moment of life in individuals, I can’t say. I certainly saw people who had been recently killed and saw people attacking each other in large numbers.”
He added: “It was when I was in a French military lorry that was going to evacuate some French citizens, and I saw someone being attacked with a screwdriver. The whole situation was so terrifying – of course for the Rwandans, first and foremost, but for me as well, even though I was next to a French soldier.”
