KINSHASA: A young journalist working for a radio station in a troubled eastern region of DR Congo has been shot dead, a media watchdog said on Monday.

Barthelemy Kubanabandu Changamuka, 23, was gunned down at close range by eight rounds in the grounds of his home overnight in Kitshanga in North Kivu province, an NGO called Journalist in Danger (JED) said.

"The only thing the attackers took before fleeing was his mobile phone," JED said.

Kubanabandu was a journalist at Coraki FM, a community radio station in Kitshanga in Masisi district, where he presented a programme called "Food Insecurity," JED said.

He had just finished a programme on obesity and returned home with a friend, when two armed men arrived, it said. His friend ran into the house but Kubanabandu was shot and died immediately.

Kubanabandu's death was confirmed by one of his colleagues and by the local branch of the National Union of the Congo Press (UNPC).

JED, a partner organisation of the global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF), said that it had recorded 116 acts of abuse against journalists in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) last year.

"Although attacks on the freedom of the press fell back slightly after new president Felix Tshisekedi tok office in January 2019, they are still running at an alarming level," RSF said on its website.