[HIGHLIGHTS] The remains of six soldiers who fell in Diên Bien Phu repatriated to France

Remains of six French soldiers were repatriated to France. They died during the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954, in what is now Vietnam.

The unidentified remains will be buried in the Indochina War Memorial necropolis in Fréjus. Sébastien Lecornu is expected to travel on May 7, at the invitation of the Vietnamese authorities, to celebrate this 70th anniversary of the battle. The battle sealed the end of the French presence in Ind Cochina and the emergence of Vietnam as an independent nation. The Vietnamese authorities gave their authorization on March 25, and the exhumation of the remains took place the next day. The French authorities have not been informed of the discovery’ of new bodies of French combatants, says the French ministry in charge of veterans' affairs. The National Office of Combatants and Victims of War (ONaCVG) will be responsible for conducting anthropo-archaeological analyses to try to identify the remains.