A French soldier was killed in a mortar attack on Saturday against the Gao camp in northern Mali, in a context of extreme tension between Paris and Bamako amid the deployment of Russian mercenaries in this Sahel country.
President Emmanuel Macron, Chief of the Armed Forces, expressed his “very strong emotion” when he announced on Sunday the death of Brigadier Alexandre Martin, of the 54th artillery regiment of Hyères (south of France).
This is the 53rd French soldier killed in combat in the Sahel since 2013 and the first in 2022. Three had been killed last year, a fourth soldier having died accidentally.
A camp of the United Nations Mission (Minusma) in Ménaka, in northern Mali, was also targeted on Sunday by mortar shell fire which did not cause any casualties.
The French anti-jihadist force Barkhane covers five countries in the Sahel. From around 5,000 men in the summer of 2021, it should be reduced to between 3,500 and 4,000 soldiers next summer as part of a reorganization of its missions.
The Gao camp was the target on Saturday shortly before 5:00 p.m. Paris time (4:00 p.m. GMT) of “several shots” of mortar shells, from a position located “five to six kilometers to the northeast”, said the spokesman for the general staff of the Armed Forces, Colonel Pascal Ianni, to AFP.
Brigadier Martin, seriously injured, was “immediately taken care of by the surgical unit on site but succumbed to his injuries”, he said.
Nine other French soldiers were “slightly injured” but “their condition does not inspire any concern”, specified the staff of the Armies in a press release.
– “Neutralization” –
The French army “immediately engaged search and attack helicopters to intercept and neutralize the attackers”, continued Colonel Ianni. One or more assailants were killed, he suggested, without further details.
The attack could not immediately be attributed. It occurred in an area frequented by jihadists from GSIM (or JNIM, a jihadist nebula affiliated with Al-Qaeda).
The Minister of the Armed Forces, Florence Parly, “bows with deep respect to the memory of Brigadier Martin, who died for France”, announced the ministry in a press release.
The Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, General Thierry Burkhard, also saluted his memory. “His thoughts are with his family and his brothers in arms, especially those injured during this operation, and all their loved ones,” the general staff said.
Alexandre Martin, 24, had been engaged in the Army since September 2015. After missions in Guyana, Martinique and Djibouti, he participated since October 19 in Operation Barkhane. He was “cohabiting and childless,” the Army said in a statement.
Four French soldiers were already injured on Tuesday in Burkina Faso when an improvised explosive device (IED) exploded as their vehicle passed.
The death of the brigadier comes as the execrable relations between the junta in power in Bamako and Paris raise the question of the maintenance of a French and European presence in Mali, even if the option of a withdrawal is not very obvious, between presidential campaign and French Presidency of the European Union.
– “Pursuing the struggle” –
President Macron “confirms France’s determination to continue the fight against terrorism in the region, alongside its partners”, underlined the Elysée.
In recent weeks, the putschists have crossed one after another the red lines set by neighboring countries and Mali’s foreign partners: refusal to organize elections at short notice with a view to returning power to civilians, and recourse to the sulphurous Russian paramilitary group Wagner, reputed to be close to the Kremlin, according to Westerners, which the junta denies.
After warning that an arrival of Russian mercenaries would be “incompatible” with the maintenance of a French presence, France says it is ready to continue the anti-jihadist fight in this country, but not at “any price”.
The European Union, which provides training missions in Mali, and the Europeans engaged alongside France in the Takuba force are also on this line.
“Moscow will not be able, by sending mercenaries, to induce the West to withdraw almost automatically wherever Russia does not want to see us,” German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said on Saturday.
Less than three months before the first round of the French presidential election, the candidates have seized on the subject. “We must review the scope of our action” in Mali, launched the candidate of the National Rally, Marine Le Pen. “One more victim in our fight against jihad,” added his far-right rival Eric Zemmour.
“We are no longer understood, our presence is not well seen. So we have to get out of it and gradually”, launched for his part the communist Fabien Roussel.