(Updated with press release from the general staff)
PARIS, Jan 23 (Reuters) – A French soldier was killed on Saturday afternoon in Mali during a mortar attack on the Operation Barkhane military camp in Gao, the Elysée and the general staff announced. armies.
Brigadier Alexandre Martin, of the 54th artillery regiment in Hyères, was seriously injured when “several indirect fire” hit the camp on Saturday around 5 p.m., the general staff said in a press release published on Sunday.
“He was immediately taken care of by the medical detachment of the Gao platform but succumbed to his injuries,” the statement said, adding that nine other soldiers were slightly injured during the attack but that their condition “ does not inspire any concern”.
Also according to the French army, “a patrol of attack helicopters was engaged to intercept and neutralize the terrorists who fired the shots”.
The President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron “respectfully salutes” the memory of the mortally wounded brigadier, as well as “the courage of the soldiers engaged in the Sahel” and expresses “his total confidence” in them.
“It confirms France’s determination to continue the fight against terrorism in the region, alongside its partners,” added a press release from the Elysée.
France has recently expressed its concern over recent developments in Mali, where mercenaries from the private Russian group Wagner have arrived as the authorities in place since the 2020 coup have postponed the holding of elections, originally scheduled for next month, citing the violence of the Islamist insurgency.
French forces left Timbuktu and several others from their bases in the north of the country last month as part of the reorganization of Operation Barkhane, announced last summer by Emmanuel Macron, which is to result in a reduction in force substantial.
(Report Benjamin Mallet)