NIGER, presumably/unconfirmed: 4x4 Tourist killed

[Yves]

According to the french Sahariens forum a 4x4 tourist had been killed du about 60km from Agadez.
More info

Yves

[This message has been edited by Yves (edited 02 December 2005).]

link fixed by Grant

[This message has been edited by Grant Johnson (edited 05 December 2005).]

[Yves]

Hello,
I received confirmation of the incident from an Agadez based agency. In Agadez they are shocked :-(

Yves

[ray n]

Just found more details------
NIAMEY (Reuters) - Armed bandits killed a French tourist in Niger's remote desert north by machine-gunning the car he was travelling in after it failed to stop at a road block, a regional government official said on Saturday.

"It was an isolated case and the security forces are hunting for the attackers. We think they are hiding among the local population," Yahaya Yandaka, governor of the region of Agadez, told local radio. The attack took place on Friday.

The area around Agadez, an ancient trading town in the Sahara desert, was the base for Niger's nomadic Tuareg rebels, a pale-skinned minority who launched a four-year insurgency in the early 1990s because they felt sidelined by a black elite governing from the capital 1,000 km (620 miles) away.

Its fighters handed over their mortars, anti-tank mines and grenade launchers during the late 1990s but former fighters say they have yet to be integrated into society and resentment against the government remains strong.

Some say they have had to resort to acts of banditry to survive, usually ambushing and stealing cars which can be sold for a huge profit over the border in Libya, many days drive north over sand and desert mountains.

The latest attack happened near the Air mountains, a massif that rises to almost 2,000 metres.

[KevinMc]

Sadly, I have word from friends in Agadez that this is true. This was the first of three cars, the other two turned around at the sound of gunfire. There was no one else injured, but the car immediately returned to Agadez. Understandably, all of Agadez is horrified, made worse as it happened so close to Agadez. The heads of the major local agencies got together and have sent out a cadre of fellows to apprehend these robbers. I have no doubt they will be delt with severely.

[Chris Scott]

Another link here which suggests it was very close to Agadez (6km to the north, not 60 as I read somewhere) - and that the victim was travelling in a local agency car which refused to stop.

http://www.adetocqueville.com/200512...3hbtt22489.htm

Fwiw, the close envions of Agadez, the highway and the Air, as well as the town itself have long been the least secure areas in Niger.

Chris S

[ray n]

I have a waypoint for Assa as N17 23', E8 09'
which puts it about 30 miles direct from Agadaz, so the 60k may be the correct version

[ray n]

Translated (mainly by Google) from the Swiss Saharan website http://www.desert-info.ch/forum/viewtopic.php?t=806
The victim, Dr François Ménégoz (57) and father of three children, was hit in the head by 2 bullets
He was on board a cross-country vehicle in company of his wife, his brother-in-law and their driver

"the testimony of Marie-Helene Ménégoz and her Jacques brother-in-law doesnt talk of a stopping of gangsters, but rather of unidentified shootings. The drama occurred Thursday morning, while the five French and their driver returned in direction of the capital of Niger, Niamey, at the end of a voyage of ten days. "Whereas their vehicle ran normally, they received a first blow of fire, without being able to determine the source of it. The driver has then accelerated and a half-dozen other shootings resounded, François was then hit by 2 bullets in the head and died on his way to the hospital. His close relations could not do anything." According to the family, the author of the shots would be unbalanced and would finally have been stopped by the police force these last hours, and not a group of highwaymen who would have tried to rob travellers."

[roro]

Two of the suspected bandits arrested ; see
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L07745997.htm
RR.