Sheikh said that three veiled Tuareg tribesmen shot him and his five friends in a remote region of West Africa. In a phone conversation with Okaz, Aal Al-Sheikh related the story of the confrontation that left four Saudi tourists dead and two injured during a hunting trip in the desert region of Tillaberi, in the southwest of Niger. “We were coming from Niamey, the capital of Niger, where we stayed for one day after arriving from Casablanca to which we flew from Riyadh,” Aal Al-Sheikh said. “We were in three cars heading to Mali on a dirt road. We stopped and got out of our vehicle to perform Fajr prayers. Three gunmen suddenly appeared, pointed their weapons at us, and told us to stay away from our cars while they searched them and took what they wanted.” “We asked them to come and pray with us and we would then consider their demands, but they insisted on looting everything,” he said. “Then we quarreled and they shot us. A bullet hit me in the thigh,” he added. “We had no weapons of any kind, as all of our hunting gear was in Mali.” “The gunmen fled away and a car arrived half an hour later. We were taken to the nearest village where an ambulance and the police were called,” he said. “I cannot believe what has happened. Allah have mercy on the souls of my four friends,” he said. He said no one was there to witness the scene as it was early morning. Aal Al-Sheikh said that he had frequently hunted in Mali and southern Niger for the past seven years without facing any problems. “We made friends in the area,” he said, adding that arrangements with the Malian government and some tribesmen are carried out every year to provide security for them during their ten-day hunting trips. He said a friend from UAE had warned him about the hunting zone in Mali. “We had arranged for bodyguards in Mali – government personnel or tribesmen who are experts in the area's geography and demography. But this incident happened within Niger territory four hours before we got to Mali,” he explained. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has provided a plane and the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Niger is monitoring the condition of the injured and is making arrangements to transfer the deceased to the Kingdom.
