Sad holiday season.
Already demoralized by the health crisis, the French woke up this Sunday to discover the photos of two young faces against a background of the tricolor.
Two soldiers of the French antiterrorist force Barkhane fatally mowed down the day before in eastern Mali by a homemade bomb which went off when their light armored vehicle passed.
Brigadier Loïc Risser was 24 and Sergeant Yvonne Huynh 33.
This mother of a young boy is the first woman in the French army killed in the Sahel since the start of the Serval intervention in 2013. A third soldier was injured in the attack without his life being in danger.
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Soldiers killed in Mali: "Terrorists use cowards' weapons", condemns Florence Parly
This Sunday, the atmosphere was heavy within the 2nd regiment of hussars of Haguenau (Bas-Rhin), near Strasbourg, from which they came.
Within this unit specializing in intelligence gathering and infiltration, we remember two "excellent comrades".
Colonel Maurice Robert de Saint-Victor, corps commander of the regiment, describes Yvonne Huynh as "a fighter always smiling even under the uniform".
And Loïc Risser like a passionate "with the discretion of confidants".
50 French soldiers killed in the Sahel since 2013
Already on Monday, December 28, three soldiers from Barkhane were killed in similar circumstances, further west of Mali but in the same area known as the three borders (Mali, Burkina, Niger).
These five deaths in less than a week bring to 50 the number of soldiers "dead for France" since the start of operations in the Sahelian strip, a territory as large as ten times the size of France.
Emmanuel Macron praised the memory of Loïc Risser and Yvonne Huynh, assuring their loved ones "of the gratitude and solidarity of the Nation" and reaffirmed "France's determination in its fight against terrorism".
A tribute also paid by the Minister of the Armed Forces.
In an interview with "Parisien", Florence Parly announces that she wants to "better protect" Barkhane's troops against improvised explosive devices used by jihadists.
She also defends the French presence in the Sahel, while several deputies, in particular from rebellious France and the Communist Party, reiterated this Sunday their request to open a "parliamentary debate" on the future of Barkhane.
These two deadly attacks come paradoxically after several months of "military success" claimed by the French force and its 5,100 soldiers, alongside the G5 Sahel force.
In recent weeks, dozens of terrorists have been "neutralized" in this way.
To the point that France plans to recall 600 soldiers in the coming weeks, to return to the numbers before the Pau summit, a year ago.
"A bottomless well"
An efficiency that is nevertheless relativized by Arthur Boutellis, associate researcher at the International Peace Institute in New York.
“Operationally, there is no denying that the Barkhane force is delivering results.
The question that arises is why after
neutralizing
so many terrorists, there are still so many left.
We realize that it is a bottomless pit because we treat the symptoms but not the root causes, ”he emphasizes.
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According to the researcher, the key could come from Mali, in the hands of a transitional government after a putsch last August.
“More and more Malians are convinced that the solution must be political and go through negotiation with local groups considered to be terrorists, but the question remains to know on what bases and what France could accept from its partner without necessarily guarantee it ”.
After having closed the door for a long time, Paris is now more open to such discussions.