Niger: six French and two Nigeriens killed by armed men in the Kouré area

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Eight people - six French and two Nigeriens - were killed this Sunday by armed men who came on motorcycles in this area in the southwest of the country, known to shelter the last herds of giraffes in West Africa.

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This Sunday, August 9, in the Kouré region, east of the capital Niamey, armed men shot dead eight people, two Nigeriens and six French tourists. Information revealed by Agence France-Presse and confirmed to RFI by Tidjani Ibrahim Katiella, governor of the Tillabéri region.

There were eight dead, six French and two Nigeriens. Armed bandits in vehicles came to kill them in the tourist area of ​​Kouré. This zone shelters the giraffes, the last giraffes of West Africa (…) We opened an investigation and we started the search of the zone. It's a shock ...

The governor of Tillabéri

Charlotte cosset

This happened in the Kouré giraffe reserve, about sixty kilometers south-east of Niamey, the capital, on the road to Dosso, a region which from the point of view of the Nigerien authorities is not an area. at risk. There is no avoidance order from this region, a Nigerien general told us.
The proof: this park, regularly frequented by tourists, is guarded by men from the water and forest service, and not by the gendarmes.Then

the victims are six French people and their two Nigerien guides,
humanitarian workers from the NGO ACTAID, based in Niger, went on an excursion in an organization vehicle, one of the rare trips allowed outside the capital according to a humanitarian.

On the site of the Quai d'Orsay, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the area is orange, that is to say that it is not recommended except for imperative reasons.

On the origin of the armed men, no information reliable for the moment, but the scenario may in a way be reminiscent of what happened in Pendjari Park, in northern Benin, a few hundred kilometers away, in May 2019; when two Franças had been kidnapped and their guide killed. A region which at the time was also orange on the map of the French government, and since changed to red 

Anyway, Nigerien gendarmes are already there: from the Kouré group, and reinforcements from Niamey and Filingué, an elite group further north, are believed to be on their way right now.

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