AKIPRESS.COM - Gunmen riding motorcycles attacked a group at a wildlife park in Niger in western Africa Sunday, New York Daily News reported.

Six French tourists and two Nigeriens were killed in the attack at The Koure Giraffe Reserve in the Tillaberi region, Gov. Tidjani Ibrahim Katiella said.

The giraffe reserve, located about 40 miles southeast of the capital Niamey, is a popular tourist destination in the landlocked country.

“They were intercepted and killed,” he said.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s office has been in touch with the Nigerien government, but the details of those conversations have not been made public.

The French government has previously warned its citizens from traveling in multiple parts of Niger to avoid Boko Haram and affiliates of the Islamic State.

A coalition of Western African and European countries, including France, are currently engaged in a fight against Islamist militants in the Sahel region, an area south of the Sahara Desert that stretches the width of the African continent that includes Niger and parts of several other countries.