13 French soldiers killed in Mali helicopter collision

Thirteen French soldiers were killed in Mali when two helicopters collided while fighting insurgents in the country’s restive north, officials said yesterday, the heaviest single loss for the French military in nearly four decades.

The accident occurred late Monday while the helicopters were reinforcing ground troops pursuing the insurgents in the Liptako region, near the borders of Burkina Faso and Niger, the armed forces ministry said. Mali has been besieged by a wave of deadly strikes against army outposts and other targets in recent weeks, a flare-up of violence despite years of efforts to push back the Islamist extremists.

A Tiger attack helicopter collided with a Cougar military transport helicopter while engaging the insurgents fleeing on motorbikes and in pick-up trucks. Both aircraft crashed not far from each other, killing all on board, the ministry said.

‘Goal to protect us’

One of the victims was the son of French Senator Jean-Marie Bockel, a centrist and former government minister who sits on the senate’s armed forces committee, the father confirmed. “These 13 heroes had just one goal: To protect us. I bow my head in front of the pain of their families and comrades,” President Emmanuel Macron said on Twitter.

Macron promised this month new measures “in the coming weeks” to bolster the fight against the Islamic insurgency in the Sahel, after receiving the presidents of Mali, Chad and Niger at the Elysee Palace. France’s 4,500-member Barkhane force in Mali and four other West African countries is tasked with building up and training local security forces but also participates in operations against the insurgents.

The accident, the deadliest since France intervened in Mali in 2013 to drive back an intense Islamic insurgency, brings to 38 the number of French soldiers killed in the country. It was the heaviest loss for the French army since the 1983 attack on the Drakkar building in Beirut, claiming the lives of 58 paratroopers.

An inquiry has been opened into the cause of the mid-air collision, Defence Minister Florence Parly said.