Niger: attack on the residence of President of the Assembly Seini Oumarou

Audio 01:03

The president of the Nigerien National Assembly, Seini Oumarou, here in February 2016. AFP - ISSOUF SANOGO

Text by: Sonia Rolley Follow

4 min

In Niamey, on the night of Friday 11 to Saturday 12 June, assailants attacked the residence of the President of the National Assembly, Seini Oumarou.

A priori, they did not seek to attack the life of the president of the assembly, but rather to steal a vehicle.

An investigation is underway.

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For Ousseini Salatou, head of the communication cell of the President of the National Assembly reached on the phone by

Sonia Rolley

from the Africa service, the attackers cannot be thieves in the classic sense.

"

 Either they are really highwaymen who are operating in our villages, or they are jihadists,

" he explains.

It was an attack that happened around one in the morning. Two individuals came on a motorcycle. They attacked the first agent, whom they killed. There was another agent in front of the front door. they fired too, but thank goodness he was saved. They wanted to seize one of the guard vehicles, there were no keys on it. They were able to flee. We couldn't catch them, we couldn't identify them, was it the vehicles that brought them? We do not know. Their clothing resembles the clothing of jihadists. They are not thieves in the sense in which we understand it, because they dare to attack the residence of the President of the National Assembly, the second personality of the country. They know there is a close guard.And thieves are not looking for a vehicle to sell it, but to use it in the field. Either they are really highwaymen who are operating in our villages, or they are really jihadists.

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