The French nuclear giant Areva was indicted on Monday for “unintentional injuries” in the investigation in Paris into the kidnapping in 2010 of five French people in Niger, claimed by the organization Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (Aqmi).
The French investigating judges accuse Areva, now Orano, of having underestimated the risk of attacks by AQIM against the Arlit uranium extraction site in northern Niger and of not having put put in place the appropriate security measures for the employees of the group, its subsidiaries and its subcontractors.
The magistrate in charge of this judicial investigation, open to the anti-terrorism unit since 2013, also believes that Areva ignored the warnings about the failures of the protection system and the terrorist threat.
A tragic night
On the night of September 15 to 16, 2010, five French people – Françoise and Daniel Larribe, Pierre Legrand, Marc Feret and Thierry Dol –, a Malagasy, Jean-Claude Rakotoarilalao, and a Togolese, Alex Ahondo, were kidnapped from the mining site. by armed men.
After five months of captivity, Françoise Larribe, sick, had been released with the Malagasy and Togolese employees. The other four hostages were released on October 29, 2013.
During questioning, the group, represented by the legal director, confirmed that Areva and the French construction group Vinci, one of the subcontractors, had paid a ransom: 12.5 million euros for the release of the first three hostages, then 30 million euros for the four men, according to this same source. On the other hand, the group refuted any failure in risk management, ensuring that the protection of employees was a priority, said this source.