Eleven people suspected of having participated in the assassination of six French humanitarian workers from the NGOs Acted and Impact, their Nigerien guide and driver in August 2020 have been placed in detention in recent months in Niger, sources learned on Friday. close to the file.
Among these eleven suspects are at least one of the lookouts and an intermediary ordering party.
The others belong to two dismantled logistics cells in Niamey, the Nigerien capital, and in a village near the Kouré reserve, where the NGO vehicle was chased by three armed men on motorcycles, according to one of the officials. sources.
These three attackers have been identified but have not been found, she said.
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The eleven suspects were arrested between August 2020 and February 2021 in Niger, then presented to a Nigerien judge who ordered their detention, she added.
The head of the Islamic State (IS) group in the Sahel, Adnan Abou Walid al-Sahraoui, had "personally ordered" this attack, announced on September 16 the Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parly, revealing that he had been killed in mid-August by the Barkhane force in the region of the three borders (Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso).
An "attack of opportunity"
On the morning of August 9, 2020, the six humanitarians - two men and four women aged 25 to 31 - were executed along with their Nigerien guide and driver, both 50, as they visited the giraffe reserve. from Kouré, 60 km south-east of Niamey where they were based. The attack was claimed by ISIS a month later. The investigation conducted jointly by France and Niger revealed that the NGO was not targeted and that it was an "attack of opportunity", said another source close to the matter.
The perpetrators of the attack had been there for one of them for three days and for the other two for two days, according to the investigation of the Nigerien police officers.
One of the lookouts, positioned on the road linking Niamey to Kouré, was tasked with reporting "the first white vehicle", said one of the nearby sources.
In Paris, a judicial investigation has been open since August 25, 2020 for “assassinations in connection with a terrorist enterprise”.
Anti-terrorism investigating judges visited Niger in September.