In Niger, the investigation began, two days after the attack on a vehicle of the NGO Acted, which left eight dead. Six French people, humanitarian workers, as well as two Nigeriens, the driver of the vehicle and the guide of the small group, were murdered. The investigative conditions are complex: the area to be excavated is immense and difficult to access. Criminal identification technicians are looking for traces of the attackers, who allegedly fled aboard motorcycles.
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The borders of Benin, Burkina Fasso and Nigeria close
Around the villages, soldiers patrol and in the bush, no one goes out after dark, confides a guide from the Kouré region to Europe 1, in the misunderstanding after the deadly attack. "We have never had people circulating in the bush that we do not know. We have not seen any strange behavior".
The Nigerien armed forces are assisted by the French army. Two Mirages 2000 fighter planes from the Dassault group crisscross the region and are lifted, if necessary, by a drone. The attackers, jihadists or not, are difficult to find and the proximity of the borders of Nigeria, Benin and Burkina Fasso raise fears of the worst. They would have had time to take refuge there.
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If the first findings are not yet known, the NGO Acted rather imagines an attack as an opportunity seized to kill Westerners and not an ambush prepared in advance. The French anti-terrorism prosecution has opened an investigation into an assassination in connection with a terrorist enterprise. Acted will file a criminal complaint, regretting that the international community does not further guarantee the safety of aid workers. Emmanuel Macron convened a Defense Council on the subject on Tuesday.