This archive report was first published on 27 November 2019.
On November 27, 2019, a tragic incident occurred in the Liptako region of Mali, near the borders with Burkina Faso and Niger, during an operation against jihadists.
The crash, which was the heaviest single loss for the French military in nearly four decades, involved three helicopters and a squadron of Mirage jets that had arrived to support ground troops pursuing Islamist extremists.
According to Colonel Frederic Barbry, a spokesman for the French military, the two black boxes from the helicopters have been recovered and will be handed over to the relevant authorities for analysis.
Barbry stated that no theory as to the cause of the crash was being ruled out, and that the conditions for flying at the time of the crash were 'extremely difficult' due to the dark night with no moonlight.
He added that the pilots work with night-vision binoculars that intensify the residual light when there is no moon, no sources of artificial light like in cities.
The soldiers' bodies will be repatriated to the French mainland, and in the southwestern French town of Pau, home to a helicopter unit that lost seven troops in the crash, several hundred army veterans, serving officers, officials, and ordinary citizens gathered to pay tribute to the men.
The accident brought the number of French troops killed in the Sahel region to 41 since Paris intervened against jihadists in northern Mali in 2013.
General Francois Lecointre, the chief of staff of the French armed forces, warned against expecting total victory over insurgents roaming an area the size of Western Europe.
He stated that 'we will never achieve a definitive victory' but insisted that France's intervention was 'useful, good, and necessary.'
