Soldiers killed in Mali crash honoured

THIRTEEN hearses surrounded by motorcycle outriders yesterday carried the bodies of French soldiers killed in Mali last week into the Invalides military hospital in Paris.

President Emmanuel Macron was later due to lead an official ceremony in honour of the men, killed when their two helicopters collided during a combat operation against a group of jihadists.

Saluting troops, firefighters, and retired soldiers with dipped flags lined the streets and the Pont Alexandre III bridge as the cortège made its way to the Invalides, where Napoleon Bonaparte is buried.

Behind them, members of the public applauded as the hearses drove slowly past.

Mali’s president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, was also expected at the ceremony in the Invalides.

France has some 4 500 troops deployed in Mali, Niger and Chad to fight Islamist extremists in the Sahel region.

Germany is meanwhile among the countries contributing to a separate UN stabilisation force in Mali. Berlin has authorised a maximum deployment of 1100 troops, of whom 372 were serving with the 15 588-strong force as of September, according to the UN.

Last Monday’s helicopter crash was one of the French military’s worst losses of life in any single incident in more than 30 years.

It took place in the troubled triborder region where Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso meet.

The French military said three helicopters as well as fighter jets had been called in to back up French commandos on the ground who had caught up with a group of jihadists they had been tracking.

Two of the helicopters collided, killing all on board, while manoeuvring in a pitch-black night to attack the extremists.

The Islamic State extremist organisation said that the collision had taken place after its fighters opened fire on one of the helicopters.

But French armed forces chief of staff General Francois Lecointre on Friday told Radio France Internationale that was “absolutely false” and none of the jihadists had opened fire on the helicopters.

Macron said on Thursday that the military and government would be considering “all the options” concerning the nature of the country’s military involvement in the Sahel region in the coming weeks. |