Disconnected from American media (which I never pay any mind anyway), I heard a rumor that the press said Americans were being targeted in Niger. From our experiences IN Niger, this does not seem to be the case. Of the several incidents over the last year or so, both French nationals (kidnapped and some killed) and American embassy personnel (came under fire only) and U.S. embassy people, FR people working with the mines up north, a FR aid worker, and maybe some FR tourists made up these groups, but our understanding was that any European or American had a bounty on their head, but FR or other embassy people viewed as very wealthy and likely to pay a ransom were targeted more than Americans. There were no incidents involving PCV's. A disturbing aspect of the latest incident which precipitated our evacuation was that it was possible the terrorists simply grabbed two white people. Given that many people think we are French sometimes, this was disconcerting. But with the info I have, it seems wrong to say Americans were being targeted.
Manti wiza (NOT much to my surprise...probably not grammatically correct), the media cannot be trusted to deliver correct information. I don't want to be spending my time spreading rumors, so I want to stop before any more speculation, but I wanted to clarify this poss faux pas.
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