Five days after the deadly attack which claimed the lives of eight people, including six French Prime minister Jean Castex, chair Friday afternoon a national ceremony to pay tribute to the six young French people killed in an attack in Niger, after the arrival of their remains in France. A plane carrying the body of Myriam, Stella, Nadifa, Charline, Antoninus and Leo landed in the morning at Orly airport, near Paris, from Niamey.
Jean Castex, is expected to the flag of honour of the airport 15: 30 meeting with the families, before presiding over the ceremony of homage, which will take place at 16 o’clock in the intimacy, without the presence of the media. He will be accompanied by Eric Dupond-Moretti, the garde des Sceaux, and Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, secretary of State to the minister of foreign Affairs, in charge in particular of the French from abroad.
“young people committed to helping the population”
The Prime minister will take the floor to salute the memory of these six young people who have been executed with their driver and their guide nigerians as they were visiting the reserve, giraffes of Kouré, 60 kilometres to the south-east of the capital Niamey, where they were based.
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“It is important that the Nation can honour them,” pointed out Jérôme Bertin, the director-general of France, the Victims, specialized in the assistance to victims, on CNews. “The families wish that their commitment is really the city “, because ” they are not tourists who are dead in Niger, but young people committed to helping the people of this country “, he added.
A “cowardice hard to describe”
Five days later, the attack carried out by gunmen traveling on a motorcycle has still not been claimed. But his character “terrorist” is no doubt, according to the president Emmanuel Macron and his counterpart of niger Mahamadou Issoufou. And experts point their finger at the islamic State the Grand Sahara (SAES), active in the area of the “three borders” (Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso), where he is chased by armies and force the French Barkhane, which deploys more than 5,000 men in the Sahel.
” France will not leave unpunished this heinous crime “, has assured Tuesday, Jean Castex, decrying the ” cowardice hard to describe “. For his part, Emmanuel Macron has affirmed the determination of Paris to “continue action to eradicate terrorist groups” in the Sahel. The president also paid tribute to the six young French people who ” showed a remarkable commitment to the people.”
between the Ages of 25 to 30 years, these four women and two men had chosen to be deployed by the NGO Acted, in Niger, where it came from, particularly in assistance to the populations displaced by the conflict. Charline F. was a phd student 30 years of age who had spent two years in Nigeria. Stella G. was devoted to from 2015 to the humanitarian, in particular for Oxfam in the central African republic. Nadifa L. had also worked in Bangui for the French ministry of the Armies, and carried out a phd on ” the responsibility of enterprises exporting weapons “. Myriam D. had joined Acted two years ago and was placed by Tunisia and Chad before reaching Niger. Leo R., a student of 25 years old, had joined Acted as an intern in 2019 and had just been sent to Niamey as ” voluntary “. Antonin G., 26 years old, was a graduate of the prestigious École normale supérieure and a researcher in environmental economics.
The two victims in niger are Boubacar G., employee of Acted and driver of the 4 X 4, and Kadri A., 51, president of the Association of guides of the giraffes in the park of Kouré.
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The attack “appears to have been premeditated”
After the attack, the French ministry of foreign Affairs has placed the whole of the Niger with the exception of the capital Niamey in the red zone, either ” formally discouraged “. According to the first elements of the counter-terrorism investigation into the killing of French aid to Niger, the attack “appears to have been premeditated” with the goal of ” targeting Westerners “, a-t-on learned Friday of justice source, confirming information of BFM TV. As for the NGO Acted, it has decided to temporarily suspend its activities in Niger, but ” there is no question of leaving the country and the region “, according to its president, Frederic de Saint-Sernin.
A complaint has been filed Wednesday by the French Association of victims of terrorism (AFVT) to denounce the dissemination of information on social networks, accompanied by messages of hate, images of the victims of the attack. “Families, unfortunately, have seen these images, which are of psychological damage enormous,” according to its director general, Guillaume Denoix de Saint-Marc.
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