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Niamey, Niger:
Eight individuals, together with staff of a French help group, had been killed Sunday by gunmen driving bikes in an space of Niger that’s dwelling to the final West African giraffes, officers stated.
“There are eight dead: two Nigeriens including a guide and a driver, while the other six are French,” the governor of the Tillaberi area informed AFP.
The French presidency confirmed that its nationals had been among the many lifeless, with out giving a determine.
The French help group ACTED stated a number of of its employees had been amongst these killed throughout a vacationer outing.
“Among the eight people killed in Niger, several were Acted employees,” stated the NGO’s lawyer Joseph Breham.
It is believed to be the primary such assault on Westerners within the space, a preferred vacationer attraction within the former French colony due to its distinctive inhabitants of West African or Niger giraffes.
“We are managing the situation, we will give more information later,” governor Tidjani Ibrahim Katiella stated, with out indicating who was behind the assault.
A supply near Niger’s environmental companies stated the assault occurred at round 11:30 am (1030 GMT) six kilometres (4 miles) east of the city of Koure, which is an hour’s drive from the capital Niamey.
“Most of the victims were shot… We found a magazine emptied of its cartridges at the scene,” the supply informed AFP.
“We do not know the identity of the attackers but they came on motorcycles through the bush and waited for the arrival” of the group.
The supply added that the victims’ automobile belonged to ACTED.
“Barbaric act”
The supply additionally described the scene of the assault, the place our bodies had been laid side-by-side subsequent to a torched automobile, which had bullet holes in its rear window.
In Paris, a spokesman for the French military stated France’s Barkhane pressure, which fights jihadists within the Sahel area, had offered help to Niger’s forces.
An AFP reporter on the scene of confirmed that French fighter jets flew overhead later Sunday as Niger’s military searched the huge wooded space.
Forensic police had been amassing samples forward of the our bodies being moved earlier than evening fell, the reporter added.
The workplace of President Emmanuel Macron stated he spoke on the telephone together with his Niger counterpart Mahamadou Issoufou.
Neighbouring Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in the meantime strongly condemned the “barbaric act”.
He lamented that “violent extremism” was nonetheless rife within the Sahel area “despite the merciless war waged by national armies, the G5 Sahel joint forces and the Barkhane force”.
“Not considered dangerous”
Around 20 years in the past, a small herd of West African giraffes, a subspecies distinguished by its lighter color, discovered a secure haven from poachers and predators within the Koure space.
Today they quantity of their tons of and are a key vacationer attraction, having fun with the safety of native individuals and conservation teams.
A Western humanitarian supply based mostly in Niamey stated “we all go to Koure on weekend outings because it’s very easy to access”.
“Everyone goes there, even ambassadors, diplomats, teachers… it is not considered a dangerous zone at all. There are NGOs protecting giraffes there,” the supply informed AFP.
However, the Tillaberi area is in a vastly unstable location, close to the borders of Mali and Burkina Faso.
The area has turn into a hideout for Sahel jihadist teams such because the Islamic State within the Greater Sahara (ISGS).
The use of bikes has been completely banned since January in an try to curb the actions of such jihadists.
Numerous Europeans have been kidnapped or killed within the risky Sahel.
Two younger Frenchmen, Antoine De Leocour and Vincent Delory, had been killed after being kidnapped by jihadists from a restaurant in Niger’s capital Niamey in 2011.
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