In March 2019, a French armored vehicle passed near Hombori, a small town in central Mopti province, where soldiers killed on Monday operated.
Photograph:
daphné benoit / Agence France-Presse / Getty Images
PARIS – Three French soldiers were killed in Mali on Monday when their vehicle hit a bomb during French counterterrorist mission operations in the West African country, the French government said.
France has more than 5,000 soldiers stationed in an area that stretches for thousands of kilometers from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to Chad in the east. For the past seven years, forces have battled branches of Islamic State, Al Qaeda and other militant groups, which roam the isolated villages in the region and threaten government forces in Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and elsewhere.
Soldiers killed on Monday were conducting operations around Hombori, a small town in central Mali province of Mopti, as part of the French military campaign Operation Barkhane against Islamic militants in the Sahel region of Africa, officials said. They identified the soldiers as Tanerii Mauri, Dorian Issakhanian and Quentin Pauchet. The three soldiers were from a military regiment based in the city of Thierville-sur-Meuse in eastern France, they said.
Their deaths caused the death of at least 47 French soldiers during the current operation and the short operation before it, which started in 2013. This includes an accident in November 2019, when two French helicopters collided during a mission in northern Mali, killing 13 soldiers.
The US military provided key support for the French operation, including drone surveillance and other intelligence gathering activities. In 2017, Islamic militants killed four American soldiers based in Niger.
Write to Noemie Bisserbe at [email protected]
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