Danes stabbed in Gabon over US Jerusalem recognition had been stalked

LIBREVILLE, Gabon — A grocer from Niger who knifed a Danish couple in Gabon shouting “Allahu akbar” came to the capital two days before the attack and had been stalking the pair, a prosecutor said Monday.

Saturday’s attack on the Danes, who were in the West African state filming for National Geographic, was “premeditated,” Libreville prosecutor Steeve Ndong Essame Ndong said, adding that the man had lived in Gabon for 19 years.

He said the 53-year-old came to Libreville on Thursday “with the aim of committing this cowardly act ‘against whites,'” adding that it was not clear if the attacker was acting alone or for a group.

The man said in his first statements that he “acted in retaliation for US attacks against Muslims and America’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital,” Defense Minister Etienne Massard said.

The Danes were stabbed while shopping for souvenirs in a popular tourist market in the heart of the capital. The man sustained severe injuries in the back and neck but his life is not in danger.

Police have made several arrests and 38 West Africans are in custody.

Gabon, a small French-speaking former colony with 1.8 million inhabitants, has so far been spared the Islamist-inspired attacks that have taken place in some neighboring countries.

In a December 6 address from the White House, US President Donald Trump defied worldwide warnings and insisted that after repeated failures to achieve peace a new approach was long overdue, describing his decision to recognize Jerusalem as the seat of Israel’s government as merely based on reality.

The move was hailed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and by leaders across much of the Israeli political spectrum. Trump stressed that he was not specifying the boundaries of Israeli sovereignty in the city, and called for no change in the status quo at the city’s holy sites.