Prime Minister Jean Castex is presiding this Friday, August 14, from 4 p.m., a national tribute ceremony to the six young French people killed on Sunday in an attack in Niger, after the arrival of their remains in France. A plane carrying the bodies of Myriam, Stella, Nadifa, Charline, Antonin and Léo landed in the morning at Orly airport, near Paris, from Niamey.
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Jean Castex is expected at the honor pavilion at the airport at 3:30 p.m. to meet the families there before presiding over the tribute ceremony which will take place in private, without the presence of the media. He will be accompanied by Éric Dupond-Moretti, Keeper of the Seals, and Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, Secretary of State to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, responsible in particular for French people living abroad.
The Prime Minister will speak to salute the memory of these six young people who were executed with their Nigerien driver and guide while they were visiting the Kouré giraffe reserve, 60 km south-east of the capital Niamey, where they were based. " It is important that the Nation can pay homage to them ", underlined Jérôme Bertin, the general director of France Victimes, specialized in the assistance to the victims, on the Cnews channel. " The families want their commitment to be truly cited " because " it is not tourists who died in Niger but young people committed to helping the population of this country ", he added.
The " terrorist " attack still not claimed
Five days after the tragedy, the attack carried out by armed men traveling on motorcycles has still not been claimed. But its " terrorist " character is beyond doubt according to President Emmanuel Macron and his Nigerien counterpart Mahamadou Issoufou. And the experts point the finger at the Islamic State in the Great Sahara (EIGS), active in the zone of the “ three borders ” (Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso) where it is pursued by the national armies and the French force Barkhane, which deploys more than 5,000 men in the Sahel.
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" France will take care not to let this heinous crime go unpunished, " Jean Castex assured Tuesday, denouncing a " cowardice that is difficult to describe ". For his part, Emmanuel Macron 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 “ demonstrated a remarkable commitment to the populations ”. Aged 25 to 30, these four women and two men had chosen to be deployed by the NGO Acted in Niger, where they notably came to the aid of populations displaced by the conflict.
After the attack, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs placed the whole of Niger with the exception of the capital Niamey in the red zone, ie “ formally discouraged ”. 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 Frédéric de Saint-Sernin.
A complaint was lodged on Wednesday by the French Association of Victims of Terrorism (AFVT) to denounce the dissemination on social networks, accompanied by hate messages, photos of the victims of the attack. " Families, unfortunately, have seen these images, which cause enormous psychological damage ", according to its general manager, Guillaume Denoix de Saint-Marc.
