3 tourists killed in mine accident in Niger
 

Three tourists were killed in North Niger, not far from the Algerien border by a Land Mine.

http://www.sahara.it/cgi-bin/ubb/ult...&f=22&t=000013

Sorry for the poor translation, but <non capisco italiano>:

ROME, 4 GEN - Three Italians are died and a quarter is
remained hurt in the north of the Niger, one isolated zone in i
pressed of the border with l?Algeria. The cross-country vehicle on which
they travelled, second the information supplied from the Farnesina, is
jumped in air when antitank mine is passed over one.
The victims are Ettore Pagani, Maddalena Maria Wedge and
Alexander Carones. A quarter person, Piero Ravà, is remained
nell?incidente wound and has been transported in the inhabited center
more neighbor, Dirkou. Its conditions would not be serious.
The four made part of a group of 12-13 persons who
it travelled on more motor vehicles. Based on the information collections
up to now, it has not been possible to clear if the group same
completing an organized travel or it had prepared
shipment in order just account.
Competent L?ambasciata d?Italia, that one of Abidjan in Coast
d?Avorio, has been endured activated, also through the consul
honorarium to Niamey, the understood one them, in order to recover the bodies of
victims and the rest of the group and to organize some
rimpatrio

It appears the mine was a short distance north of Djado/Orida, not really the Alg border (which would be worrying...). The Tubu rebels who used to occupy this area until recently were said to have mined it at a couple of years ago, although not with anti tank mines...
Piero Rave is the boss of Spazi D'Aventura.. the best known of the Italian Saharan agencies

AFAIK an anti-personnel mine wouldn't flip a vehicle or kill three - it must have been a vehicle mine at the very least - not sure if they use anti-tank mines...

News is it was anti anti tank - the area was demined after the battle was over 18 months ago but I guess they missed one.

Ch

This is not good. My friend Jan is in that area right now, with 2 4X4’s and I believe an Italian couple. He’s with his Dutch girlfriend. Does anyone know where I can find some more info on this? I searched CNN, BBC and some French on-line papers, but I can’t find a thing about it. Anyone know when this exactly happened? Any more precise locations? Maybe a lat/lon approximately?

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Kevin

http://www.nohorizons.net