Five French soldiers killed during single week in Mali

Sergeant Yvonne Huynh (L) and Brigadier Loic Risser, the two French soldiers killed by an improvised explosive device in northeastern Mali on January 3, 2021

Credit: AFP

Five French soldiers have been killed by bomb attacks in Mali in the past week, making it one of the deadliest since France intervened against jihadists in West Africa’s Sahel region in 2013.

Two soldiers were killed and a third one injured on Saturday in the northeast Menaka region, which borders Niger. Their vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device (IED), the French army disclosed.

"The motivation, the combativeness and the selflessness of French soldiers remain unscathed in the face of terrorist groups associated with [Islamic State] and al-Qaeda which sow terror and chaos in Mali and the Sahel," Florence Parly, the French army minister, said.

Sergeant Yvonne Huynh, Brigadier Loïc Risser and a third colleague were on an intelligence-gathering mission when the attack happened. Ms Huynh and Mr Risser were killed while their colleague, who was injured, is in a stable condition.

Ms Huynh, 33, was the first woman member of the French army to die in the Sahel region since France started military operations in Mali and neighbouring countries to fight jihadists in 2013.

A French armoured vehicle on patrol in Mali

Credit: DAPHNE BENOIT

The deaths come five days after three other soldiers were killed in similar circumstances in central Mali. Al-Qaeda’s North Africa wing claimed Monday’s attack on the soldiers’ armoured vehicle with an IED, according to jihadist monitoring group SITE Intel.

In total, 50 French soldiers have died in the Sahel since 2013. Despite the presence of 5,000 French troops, a UN peacekeeping mission and military support by European nations, militants linked to al-Qaeda and Islamic State have grown stronger in recent years in areas where state authorities are all but absent.

The jihadist insurgency which started after a coup and a separatist rebellion by Tuareg northerners in Mali in 2012 has since expanded to neighbouring countries, including Niger and Burkina Faso.

Nearly 5,000 civilians died in the first six months of 2020 in the region, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.