The death of a Gabonese student in Turkey, confirmed by her embassy and university, elicits strong emotions among the country’s growing number of African students.
According to Turkish media, the body of the young woman, 18-year-old Jeannah Danys Dinabongho Ibouanga, was discovered on Saturday in a river near a railway line, not far from the University of Karabük (north), where she was studying mechanical engineering.
According to preliminary findings, the young woman “drowned,” and no other injuries or signs of sexual violence were discovered.
The exact cause of death will be determined following an autopsy, the results of which are expected “in the coming days,” according to the private channel NTV.
When contacted by AFP, the Gabonese embassy in Ankara confirmed the young woman’s death on Wednesday, without providing further details but promising that she “will communicate later.”
In a press release read on Gabonese television, the Gabonese Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed “dismay and deep concern (after) the assassination of our compatriot,” stating that its representation in Turkey had received instructions to demand an autopsy and the opening of a judicial inquiry into this tragedy.
The rector of Karabük University published a message of condolence on the establishment’s website, in Turkish and French, assuring that the young woman was “much loved by her friends and professors”.
On Twitter, the hashtag #JusticepourDina spread among African students at her university, several dozen of whom demonstrated on the premises of the establishment, brandishing portraits of the victim.
In a voicemail, billed on Twitter as a call from ‘Dina’ to her mother, the crying student pleaded with her mother to let her go to Sakarya University, less than two hours’ drive east from Istanbul: “There is no racism there”, said the young woman.
Turkey, whose President Recep Tayyip Erdogan deploys intense diplomatic and economic activity in Africa, welcomes more than 61,000 students from the continent (compared to 40,000 in 2019), most of them benefiting from scholarships, indicated Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu visited South Africa last month, according to his remarks reported by the official Anadolu agency.
The minister then underlined that Ankara saw in education “the main axis of cooperation with the continent”.