Top Kenyan Cameraman 'Mo' Amin Buried In Nairobi

By Manoah Esipisu

NAIROBI, Kenya (Reuter) - Mohamed "Mo" Amin, the award-winning Kenyan cameraman killed aboard a hijacked Ethiopian plane last weekend, was buried Wednesday.

Hundreds of mourners paid their respects at Amin's house in the wealthy Lavington district of Nairobi where his body was on view before it was driven in a motorcade with police outriders to the city's Muslim cemetery.

Amin, 53, was aboard an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767 seized by three hijackers on a flight from Addis Ababa to Nairobi Nov. 23. The airliner ran out of fuel and crashed into the sea just off the Comoro Islands.

Only 50 out of the 175 passengers and crew survived.

Amin, also a Reuters Television executive, was best known for bringing Ethiopia's catastrophic famine in 1984 to world attention.

His dramatic pictures of the starving and dying jolted the world into a huge relief effort that included the "Live Aid" rock concert beamed around the globe, raising millions of dollars to ease the famine.

Amin, a self-taught photographer, worked for Reuters after it took over the television film agency Visnews, later renamed Reuters Television, in 1993.

He launched its Nairobi-made "Africa Journal" program at the beginning of 1995.

Reuters editor-in-chief Mark Wood led a delegation of the company's executives at the funeral, which was also attended by colleagues from international television and radio stations, as well as local and international newspapers.

"We are deeply saddened by his death," Wood said in a tribute this week.

"Mohamed Amin was one of the outstanding newsmen of his time. He was known everywhere, hugely respected, an extraordinary and forceful person.

"He transformed television coverage of Africa and, by focusing the world's attention on famine and suffering, helped to save many lives."

Amin, who lived in Nairobi, was regarded as one of Africa's top photojournalists. He won numerous awards in a career that spanned four decades after starting out with a camera as a 13-year-old schoolboy covering the East African car rally.

He was made a Member of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth, and given the Order of the Grand Warrior, the highest honor Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi has bestowed on a journalist.

Born in Nairobi, he married in 1968 and leaves a widow Dolly and son Salim, 26.

Reuters/Variety