Young and committed: who were the French victims of the attack in Niger?

The emotion remains strong since the death of six young French aid workers and their two Nigerien accompanists, Sunday, August 9, in an unclaimed attack. Over-educated and very committed, the six French victims dreamed only of changing the world by going to work for Acted in one of the most dangerous areas in Africa. Portraits.

• Charline

Originally from Seine-Maritime, this 30-year-old doctoral student, specialist in management sciences taught for five years at the University of Aix-Marseille, then worked for two years at the French Embassy in Nigeria, before being recently hired by Acted.

"She was full of life, full of convictions, idealistic. She could not stand injustice. She fought for her ideas", underlines Sarah, one of her sisters, who indicates that she had taken her post in Niamey. only a week ago.

"She had already traveled a few days in Niger before taking her post in Niamey. She had a strong character, always up for anything, funny, full of humanity. It's hard to say it today but she was very alive. ", recalls her friend Anna Gomez-Colombani. "After Niger, she also had plans to move to Jordan, where we had both traveled a few weeks ago. She was not stopping."

"She was a woman of character, of which her family was proud, committed to her research in development economics, combining academic work with field work", testified her thesis director Claude Rochet.

👤 Charline
👤 Nadifa
👤 Stella
👤 Myriam
👤 Antonin
👤 Léo

Who are the 6 French victims of the attack in #Niger on Sunday?

▶ # JT13h pic.twitter.com/KoTg4uZ2rC

• Stella

She had studied marketing and management in Montpellier, her city of origin, then in the Paris region, before devoting herself from 2015 to humanitarian aid, according to her LinkedIn profile.

Passed by the NGO Oxfam in the Central African Republic, she had also been initiated six months in the field by the Bioforce institute, a French benchmark in the training of humanitarian workers, this institute based in Vénissieux told AFP.

In 2020, she joined Reach, a humanitarian data analysis program launched by Acted and its sister organization, Impact.

• Nadifa

Having worked for the companies Axa and Véolia, in 2015 she joined the Ministry of the Armed Forces, mainly in financial and management functions. She had been deployed for six months in Bangui, with a European military mission in the Central African Republic.

The young woman was also doing a doctorate on "the responsibility of companies exporting arms" at the University of Aix-Marseille, according to her LinkedIn profile.

At the beginning of December, she had taken training in English (Humanitarian Program Manager) at the Bioforce Institute and had left the army in February, according to the Ministry of the Armed Forces, before being sent six months in the field in Niger.

• Myriam

Originally from Toulouse, she had a master's degree in crisis and conflict management at Paris-Dauphine University and had been trained in various NGOs in France and Colombia.

She had joined Acted two years ago, first in Paris, before passing through Tunisia, Chad and Niger, where she had been transferred a few months ago.

"She was quite discreet, passionate, cheerful, considerate, attentive. If you had a problem, she would come to you. Already, she was attracted to Africa. No wonder she turned to humanitarian aid. . I have very good memories of her, "Boris Kharlamoff, a colleague in the Infocom license at the Catholic Institute of Toulouse, told AFP.

• Leo

"A commitment", as the common thread of his career: one of the youngest of the group, a student with a determined outlook, had joined Acted as an intern in 2019, in parallel with his studies in business school.

After a semester of training at Acted's headquarters in Paris, he had just been sent as a "volunteer" to the NGO's office in Niamey, where he specialized in logistics.

"He was to graduate in 2021 ... We are grieved by this tragic news," said his school, the Business School of Rennes, in a statement.

One of our students has died in the attack in Niger. He was a volunteer member of @ACTED_Niger. The entire community of Rennes_SB is mourning this tragic news.
We extend our condolences to his family and loved ones in this painful moment.

• Antonin

Normalien, researcher in environmental economics and in charge of supervised work in a Parisian university, this young man of 26 years was from Carhaix, in Brittany. On his LinkedIn profile, he displays his interest in various humanitarian causes, in addition to his very high-level studies in development economics.

"He was a wonderful young man, brilliant and very devoted to the questions of economic development of countries in difficulty. He certainly found that more fulfilling than the economic matter, even if he was an excellent academic", testifies to AFP his professor at the National Institute of Statistics and Applied Economics (Insea), Geoffrey L. Barrows.

Christophe Hachon, who had him as a preparatory class student at the Victor and Hélène Basch high school in Rennes, remembers a young man who "spent his time helping others". "He was not interested in success per se, but had the idea to get it right," he told AFP. "He wanted to know how what one learns in preparation can help build a society at the service of others".

• Kadri

President of the Association of Giraffe Guides of Kouré, this Nigerien was a "committed guide and activist in the giraffe area of ​​Kouré from the start. He has always been aware of the importance of working to save the last giraffes of West Africa ", greeted his association on its Facebook page.

HOMAGE TO OUR FRIEND, OUR BROTHER, Kadri Abdou President of AVEN (Association for the Promotion of Ecotourism) ...

He had been a guide for twenty-one years, so since the first herds of giraffes arrived in the area. He was 51 years old, married to two women and father of 13 children.

• Boubacar

This Nigerian employee of Acted was the driver of the 4X4 for this excursion. According to the Parisian, he was 50 years old and was expecting a fifth child with his wife.

With AFP

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