ISIS claims eight people, including six French, were killed in Niger on August 9

ISIS claims eight people, including six French, were killed in Niger on August 9

The aid workers’ vehicle, after its attack, near Kouré, about sixty kilometers from Niamey, on August 9. – / AFP

The Islamic State (IS) group claimed responsibility on Thursday (September 17th) for the August 9 assassination in Niger of eight people, including six French aid workers and two Nigerians, in its Al-Naba propaganda unit.

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The publication, authenticated by multiple sources, including the American organ SITE, specializing in the monitoring of jihadist groups, evokes a “lightning attack” in the Kouré region which resulted in the death of six French “Crusaders” and two “apostates. »Nigeriens.

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Young French aid workers, two men and four women, were murdered with their Nigerien driver and guide by armed men on motorcycles on August 9 while they were visiting the Kouré giraffe reserve, 60 km south-east of the capital Niamey where they were based.

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After the attack, the Nigerien government closed the reserve while France placed the site in a “red zone”, just like the rest of the country except the capital. Niger, a very poor Sahelian country, is plagued by recurrent jihadist attacks which have left hundreds of people dead.

With Mali and neighboring Burkina Faso, it is at the heart of a huge area scoured by jihadist groups claiming to be ISIS or its rival Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), and where some 5,100 are deployed French soldiers of the Barkhane counterterrorism force.

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