The accident took place on Sunday May 7 on the Oyapock River. Despite the mobilization of three divers, the search remains fruitless.
By IM with AFP
© JEROME VALLETTE / AFP
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” Iuring a mission Sunday evening on the Oyapock River, a military boatman accidentally fell into the water. He is currently missing. Research is still ongoing,” said a communication officer from the Armed Forces in French Guiana. The soldier fell from a canoe at around 9 p.m. local time (midnight GMT) the prefecture informed on Monday May 8, specifying that the missing, canoe operator within the 3e foreign infantry regiment, is also the customary chief of the Teko Amerindians of the village of Camopi on the Oyapock River.
The prefecture estimated that, according to the first elements, the boat hit a tree while operating at night in unfavorable weather.
A slightly injured policeman
Three divers have been dispatched to Camopi and two helicopters have been mobilized, she added, indicating that the search carried out on Monday proved fruitless and that it will resume on Tuesday. A gendarme, on patrol aboard the same canoe with other soldiers, was slightly injured, the gendarmerie in Paris also indicated.
On March 25, a French gendarme, GIGN Major Arnaud Blanc, was killed while participating with nine comrades in an operation against illegal gold panning. A man suspected of belonging to a group of clandestine gold mine robbers involved in the death of this gendarme was subsequently arrested.