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PARIS: Two French soldiers were killed when their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device in northeast Mali on Saturday (January 2), just days after three others were similarly killed.
Their deaths brought the number of French soldiers killed in the West African nation to 50 since France first intervened in 2013 to help push back jihadist forces, according to army personnel.
President Emmanuel Macron “learned with great sadness” of the deaths of Sergeant Yvonne Huynh and Brigadier Loic Risser in the Menaka region, his office said in a statement.
Huynh, 33, the mother of a young child, was the first female soldier killed in the Sahel region since the French operation began.
Risser was 24 years old. Both were members of a regiment specialized in intelligence work.
“His vehicle struck an improvised explosive device during an intelligence mission,” the French presidency said of the incident on Saturday.
Another soldier was injured in the explosion, but his life is not in danger, he added.
“BATTLE AGAINST TERRORISM”
Barkhane’s French force has 5,100 soldiers spread across the arid Sahel region and has been fighting jihadist groups alongside soldiers from Mauritania, Chad, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, who together form the G5 Sahel group.
But the lack of equipment, funds and training, along with deployment and coordination problems on the ground, have left the group struggling for credibility and still relying on France, the great political sponsor of the force.
Macron affirmed France’s determination to continue its role in “the battle against terrorism” after Saturday’s attack.
The Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (GSIM) claimed responsibility for the earlier attack that killed three French soldiers in the center of the poor Sahel state.
Those deaths were also due to an army vehicle hitting an explosive device.
The group, the main jihadist alliance in the Sahel, cited a number of reasons for the attack, including the continued French military presence in the region, cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad published by a French newspaper, and Macron’s defense of them on behalf of freedom of expression.
Mali’s ruling military council ousted President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in August 2020 after weeks of protests sparked in part by his failure to push back insurgents.
The junta has not ruled out negotiations with armed groups in light of the persistent bloodshed in the region.
Four thousand people died in 2019 from jihadist violence and ethnic conflict sparked by Islamists in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, according to the UN.
