Two Chinese employees of a mining company were kidnapped in western Niger overnight from Sunday to Monday, the region's governor told AFP on Monday.
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"
Two Chinese nationals were kidnapped during the night (...) by armed men in Mbanga
", a village in western Niger said Tidjani Ibrahim Katiella, the governor of Tillabéri, a region located in the area known as the "
three borders
”, between Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali. This area is regularly struck by jihadist groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqmi) or the Islamic State organization (IS).
The kidnapped Chinese "
have a permit to search for gold
" and "
have already received warnings (from armed groups to leave the area) but they have refused to return,
" added the governor, asserting that the identity of the attackers and the number of kidnappers was not known.
China strengthened its economic ties with Niger in 2006, with prospecting for uranium, gold and oil in the north, west and south of the country.
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The last kidnapping of a Chinese national in the country dates back to July 6, 2007. He was an employee of the China Nuclear Engineering and Construction Corporation (CNEC) who carried out uranium exploration activities in the region of Agadez (North).
He had been kidnapped by the Tuareg rebels of the Mouvement des Nigeriens pour la justice (MNJ) who accused China of helping Niger "
in the purchase of arms aimed at subduing them
".
He was released after a few days of intense negotiations.
The deadliest attacks in Niger in recent years
In October 2010, four French people working for the French group Areva in Arlit (North), had been kidnapped. They had been released in September 2013. A Frenchwoman, a Malagasy and a Togolese kidnapped at the same time, had been released in February 2011. In April 2018, a German who worked for an NGO, had been kidnapped in the region of Tillabéri and taken away. to the north, not far from the Malian border. He was never found. On March 21, the localities of Intezayane, Bakorat, Woursanat and several other hamlets and camps located in the department of Tillia, region of Tahoua, east of that of Tillabéri, were attacked by armed men who killed 141 people, according to an official report.
These attacks were the deadliest in Niger in recent years by suspected jihadists. The country is also facing attacks from the Nigerian jihadist group Boko Haram in the south-east, bordering Nigeria.