French armed forces killed Soumana Boura, a leading member of the Islamic State (IS) group in Niger and a key suspect in the August 2020 murders of French aid workers in the West African country, the French defence ministry said on Tuesday.
The French army said Boura was killed on December 20 in an air strike carried out by "Operation Barkhane" anti-terror forces north of Tillabéri, in northwestern Niger.
The IS group militant was a key suspect in the August 2020 murders of six aid workers, aged between 25 and 31, and their two local guides while they were visiting a nature reserve. The jihadist group had claimed responsibility for the killings.
Colonel Pascal Ianni, the French army's general staff spokesman, told AFP that Boura had filmed the execution of the eight victims in August and overseen the publication of the footage. The attackers cut the throat of a young woman in the group, shot the others dead, set fire to their jeep and fled.
French President Emmanuel Macron said at the time that the killings were "manifestly a terrorist attack" and threatened repercussions.
Boura's death comes four months after French forces announced the killing of Adnan Abou Walid al-Sahrawi, the head of the IS group's Greater Sahara branch (ISGS) and the alleged mastermind of the deadly attack on French aid workers. Eleven other people have been arrested in Niger in recent months over their alleged involvement in the murders.
Monday's air strike targeting Boura helped "to fight against the expansion of ISGS and to stop it taking control of some parts of the three-border region" between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, the French army said.
After nine years of military presence in the Sahel region, France has begun to reorganise and wind down its Barkhane force there. It has already left its northern Mali bases of Tessalit, Kidal and Timbuktu and is refocusing its presence on Gao, Menaka and Niamey.
French troops, currently numbering about 5,000 in the region, are to be drawn down by about half by 2023.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS)
