The French staff announced on Tuesday, December 21, that the army had killed in Niger one of the perpetrators of the assassination of six French humanitarian workers, their guide and their Nigerien driver in August 2020 in Kouré park. This assassination was claimed by the Islamic State in the Sahel group (EIGS).
“Yesterday [lundi 20 décembre], in the Tillabéri region (west), we neutralized by air strike an EIGS group leader, Soumana Boura, one of the perpetrators of the assassination of six nationals in Kouré park on August 9, 2020 “, Who “had filmed the execution and had ensured the media coverage”, the spokesman for the staff, Colonel Pascal Ianni, told AFP.
Soumana Boura led a group of several dozen fighters in western Niger, according to the French army. He was taken out by drone fire while alone on a motorcycle. A French unit was sent to the ground to search the area and formally identify the jihadist, detailed the staff in a statement, specifying that this operation had been carried out. “in close coordination with the Nigerien authorities”.
On the morning of August 9, 2020, the 4X4 of six humanitarian workers from the NGOs Acted and Impact, accompanied by a Nigerien driver and guide, was attacked by three armed men on two motorcycles, while they were visiting the reserve. of giraffes from Kouré. Established in Niamey for a few weeks or months, humanitarian workers (four women and two men aged 25 to 31) had planned a few days earlier this excursion to the reserve, located 60 km south-east of Niamey.
A young woman had been slaughtered. The other five aid workers, their guide and their driver, both aged 50, had been shot dead. The three attackers then set fire to the 4X4 before fleeing. The attack was claimed by ISIS a month later.
At the end of nearly nine years of presence in the Sahel, France undertook in June to reorganize its military system there by leaving its three most northern bases in Mali (Tessalit, Kidal and Timbuktu) to refocus around Gao and Ménaka, on the borders of Niger and Burkina Faso, as well as in Niamey. This plan provides for a reduction in the French workforce in the Sahel, from 5,000 currently to 2,500-3,000 by 2023.