Frenchmen killed in Niger ‘before forces intervened’

There is grief in the village of Linselles near Lille in northern France, home to the two young Frenchmen killed in Niger. Their abductors are strongly suspected of having links to al Qaeda.

Vincent Delory had just arrived in the country for the wedding of his childhood friend, aid worker Antoine de Léocour. His marriage to a local woman was due to take place next week.

“We are shattered and appalled,” said a neighbour. “It is so unfair, it is so unbelievable that they lost their lives like that, in a shoot-out, with a wedding coming up, when they had done nothing wrong,” she added.

The two friends, both 25, were snatched by gunmen as they ate at a bar-restaurant in the capital Niamey on Friday night.

The gang’s 4×4 vehicle headed off into the desert, tracked by Niger’s army and French forces present in the region.

A first confrontation took place at Ouallam but the kidnappers got away. Close to the border with Mali there was a second battle. The hostages’ bodies were later found nearby.

A senior Niger military official has suggested the two Frenchmen were executed before the military intervention.

Several of the kidnappers were reported to have been killed or injured. It is not known whether any escaped.

“There was a possibility, an opportunity, to try to stop the terrorists from reaching their refuge zone, and to free the hostages, and this opportunity was seized,” said French military spokesman Colonel Thierry Burkhard.

Al Qaeda’s north African wing is holding five other French nationals kidnapped in Niger last September and taken to Mali.

The French defence minister Alain Juppé is due to travel to Niamey for talks. France is warning its citizens to take the utmost care throughout the Sahara region.

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