Six soldiers of the Barkhane anti-jihadist force were injured Friday morning in Mali by a suicide vehicle bomb, the third attack suffered by the French military since the end of December, said the French army staff.
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In the area known as the three borders (Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso),
"an unknown vehicle headed at high speed"
towards the rear of a convoy in operation with Malian soldiers, according to the statement.
“An armored infantry fighting vehicle (AFVC) then intervened to protect the other elements of the force.
Faced with this maneuver, the driver (...) triggered his explosive charge ”
, it was specified.
“Six French soldiers were wounded but their vital prognosis is not engaged”.
They were evacuated by helicopter to the military hospital in Gao.
Three of them will be repatriated to the metropolis on Saturday.
The toll is particularly heavy at the beginning of the year for the French army, which deploys 5,100 men in the Sahel alongside the armies of the G5 Sahel (Mauritania, Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso, Niger).
On January 2, two soldiers, including a woman, both from the 2nd Hussar Regiment from Haguenau, near Strasbourg (east), were killed in their light armored vehicle (VBL),
"the object of an explosive device attack. improvised ”
during a reconnaissance and intelligence mission.
Five days before, three soldiers of the 1st regiment of hunters of Thierville-sur-Meuse (east) had also been victims of a homemade bomb.
These deaths bring to 50 the number of French soldiers killed in the Sahel since 2013 in the anti-jihadist operations Serval then Barkhane.
These two deadly attacks have since been claimed by the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM), affiliated with Al Qaeda.
