The French army announces having killed, this Monday, December 20, 2021, in Niger, one of the perpetrators of the assassination of six French humanitarian workers and their Nigerien companions in the Kouré reserve in August 2020. The man is presented as a member of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (EIGS).
Soumana Boura was killed on Monday according to a statement from the French army. The General Staff describes him as an EIGS group leader in western Niger who filmed the execution French humanitarian workers, their guide and their Nigerian driver, in the Kouré giraffe reserve, about sixty kilometers from Niamey, in August 2020, and had ensured the media coverage.
Air strike
According to the press release, Soumana Boura was killed on Monday in the Tillabéri region in western Niger by an airstrike. A drone shot while he was alone on a motorcycle. An operation carried out in close collaboration with the Nigerien authorities, according to the French general staff, which also specifies that a French unit was then sent to the ground to search the area and formally identify the jihadist.
Arrests in Niger
Kouré’s assassination had been claimed a month later by the Islamic State group. Last August, Paris announced that it had killed the head of the EIGS, Adnan Abou Walid al Sahraoui, who had ordered the attack. A dozen people in connection with this case have also been arrested in Niger in recent months.
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