French commandos killed rescuing hostages
FRENCH special forces have rescued four hostages during a night-time raid on a terrorist camp in Burkina Faso.
Two French commandos died in the assault, during which four terrorists were killed.
The rescued hostages included Patrick Picque and Laurent Lassimouillas, two French citizens who had disappeared on May 1 while on safari in the tiny neighbouring west African nation of Benin. Mr Pique, 51, a jeweller, and Mr Lassimouillas, 46, a piano teacher, had been at the end of a trip to the remote Pendjari National Park.
A wildlife reserve known for its elephants and lions, it lies close to Benin’s porous north-western border with Burkina Faso, which has been repeatedly hit by Islamist violence.
After going out with Fiacre Gbedji, their local guide, they had been due back at the lodge where they were staying by evening, but never returned.
Three days later, the body of their guide was found in the park, riddled with bullets. The charred remains of their white Toyota jeep were found over the border in eastern Burkina
Faso.
In the raid, two other hostages, an American and a South Korean, both women, were also found.
They had been held for 28 days but their governments were unaware that they had been kidnapped. Their names were not immediately released.
Cedric de Pierrepont, 32, and Alain Bertoncello, 27, the soldiers who died in the raid, were both members of the prestigious Hubert commando unit of the French naval special forces.
They had been deployed in the Sahel region since March 30 to counter Islamist groups. The French raid was supported by US intelligence. In the chaos two terrorists escaped.
In a statement the French government said Emmanuel Macron, the president, “bows with emotion and solemnity before the sacrifice of our two soldiers who gave their lives to save those of our citizens”.
Francois Lecointre, the French army chief, said: “The precise and determined actions of French soldiers allowed us to take out the kidnappers while protecting the lives of the hostages.”
In 2013, France, the former colonial power in the region, intervened against Islamist militants in neighbouring Mali. It has since kept about 4,500 troops in the Sahel.
The region has seen a spike in violence by militants linked to al-qaeda and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil). Swathes of northern and eastern Burkina Faso have been overrun by militants, leaving the government struggling to assert authority and forcing more than 100,000 residents to flee.
The French government had warned its citizens against travelling to parts of Benin near the Burkina Faso border because of the risk of kidnapping.
Roch Kaboré, Burkina Faso’s president, said: “The joint military intervention that allowed us to achieve these results shows our common engagement in fighting against the forces of evil.”