DAKAR, Dec 17: Veteran AFP journalist Deida Hydara, hailed as the dean of the Gambian press corps, was shot and killed in the capital Banjul on Friday.

"He was like the Norbert Zongo of Gambia," said Leonard Vincent, head of the Africa service of the France-based media watchdog, Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), referring to the Burkina Faso journalist killed in 1998 under still-mysterious circumstances.

"I hope with all my heart that we can determine how and why this happened." Deida Hydara, 58, died instantly after being shot three times on Thursday night after leaving the office of the newspaper "The Point", of which he was co-editor.

The paper had just celebrated its 13th anniversary of publication, Gambia Press Union chief Demba Ali Diao said. "He was driving two colleagues home when a taxi overtook the car and made it stop," Mr Diao said. "Several people, we don't know how many, got out, and fired into the car. He was killed instantly."

The two women colleagues in the car with Hydara were wounded, Mr Diao added. Hydara's family had earlier talked to newsmen about the killing, saying the veteran journalist had died on the spot after being shot just after midnight.

The Banjul-based director of private Senegalese radio network Sud FM, Pape Diomaye Thiare, said Mr Hydara's body had been taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital, where it was being attended by friends and colleagues.

"We have no idea who did this, there are no identified suspects," said Thiare. "We are all shocked and dismayed - I was with him yesterday." "Everybody is so surprised, why would anyone want to kill Deida? He had such a pleasant character and was a veteran journalist," Mr Diao said.

"He has been very critical of the government and very vocal in opposition to these repressive laws but that does not mean that he, of all people, should have been the target of an assassin's bullet." -AFP