Niger President was killed accidentally — Chief bodyguard

NIAMEY, APRIL 10: President Ibrahim Bare Mainassara’s fatal shooting was “accidental,” the head of his bodyguard told AFP today. “Nothing was premeditated,” said Major Daouda Mallam Wanke, the day after General Mainassara died in a hail of bullets at a military airbase near Niamey.“A shot was fired inadvertently… the guards reacted and fired,” said Wanke, who is tipped by some to succeed Mainassara.

“The army will make an announcement tomorrow after the president’s funeral,” he said, adding that discussions had taken place with the West African country’s politicians. Wanke was among the dozen officers behind the January 1996 coup which brought Mainassara to power.

After Mainassara’s killing, the US State Department said he had been “assassinated”by his own presidential guard, but admitted ignorance as to any motive.