20 years ago, journalists Johanne Sutton, Pierre Billaud and Volker Handloik were killed in Afghanistan

It was twenty years ago, in Afghanistan. The Taliban were living their last hours in power in Kabul, under pressure from an offensive by the Afghan rebellion and an international coalition led by the United States. On the ground, in northeastern Afghanistan, Johanne Sutton, journalist at RFI, Pierre Billaud, journalist at RTL and formerly of Radio France, and Volker Handloik, German journalist sent by the magazine Stern. On November 11, 2001, they followed a convoy of Northern Alliance soldiers between Taloqan and Kunduz when they were targeted by the Taliban. Kalashnikov fire, anti-tank rockets, at the end of the ambush, the three journalists are found dead.

In one of his last reports for RTL, shortly before disappearing, Pierre Billaud told the life of Afghan women under the Taliban regime. They described to his microphone their lives in a country that has become “a prison for women”, the meager hope aroused for them by the prospect of the fall of the Taliban. Testimonies that resonate with the situation in Afghanistan in 2021, where the Taliban have regained power. As if, twenty years apart, this news that Johanne, Pierre and Volker so loved to describe had come full circle.

In this report, it is the voice of Johanne Sutton that we hear: it is she who ensures for Pierre Billaud the translations of the testimonies.

Pierre Billaud, 31, had been in Afghanistan for three weeks when he was killed. Before RTL, where he had been a major reporter for the foreign service for two years, he had switched to the microphones of France Inter and Franceinfo. Johanne Sutton was going to be 35 years old. Joined RFI in 1990, she had been a correspondent in London. Former head of RFI’s reporting service, which she joined in 1996, she had chosen to become a field reporter again. Volker Handloik, 40, worked for the German magazine Stern.