Announced by the Élysée in a press release the next day, the accident occurred on the evening of Monday November 25, 2019, in Liptako, in the Ménaka region, on the borders of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, during a “combat operation “.
What happened that day?
A Tiger combat helicopter collided with a Cougar maneuver and assault helicopter, according to the army general staff. According to information collected at the time by defense specialist Jean-Marc Tanguy, and relayed by “Sud Ouest”, the soldiers “were engaged in an operation to support a group of paratrooper commandos (GCP) on the ground. These GCPs had been engaged on the ground in motorized vehicles for several days.”
Active tracking of an armed terrorist group
On the afternoon of Monday, they would have, according to the specialist, “begun the active hunt for an armed terrorist group (GAT) motorized in pick-ups and motorcycles. They requested the support of helicopters and Mirage 2000D from the BAP in Niamey. While preparing to engage the armed terrorist groups (GAT), the two helicopters collided. The accident took place around 7:40 p.m., when night had fallen. The circumstances of the tragedy are not yet known. All occupants died in this collision: the crew of the Tiger (2), the Cougar (5) and the six members of the mountain commando group who were on board this last helicopter.
“These thirteen heroes had only one goal, to protect us”: Emmanuel Macron saluted “with the greatest respect the memory of these soldiers of the army, six officers, six non-commissioned officers, and a corporal -leader, fallen in operations and died for France in the hard fight against terrorism in the Sahel,” the presidency said in a press release. “This terrible news mourns our armiesthe defense community and France as a whole,” reacted the Minister of the Armed Forces in a press release.
Operation Barkhane in Mali: our file
Paris formalized this Thursday, February 17, 2022, Mali's withdrawal from anti-jihadist military operations Barkhane and Takuba. The armed intervention which began in 2013 cost the lives of 58 French soldiers.
Who are the victims?
This is one of the heaviest human tolls suffered by the French army since the Drakkar attack in Lebanon in 1983, which left 58 dead. Seven of the soldiers killed in this accident belonged to the 5th Combat Helicopter Regiment, based in Pau-Uzein. On its Facebook page, the 5th Combat Helicopter Regiment changed its profile photo to one wearing a black crepe, a sign of mourning.
Among the victims is the son of former French centrist minister and senator Jean-Marie Bockel. Beyond the seven victims coming from Pau, four others came from the 4th regiment of hunters from Gap (south-east).
In a press release, the Ministry of the Armed Forces published the names of the deceased soldiers: Captain Nicolas Mgard, of the 5th Combat Helicopter Regiments of Pau, Captain Benjamin Gireud, of the 5th Combat Helicopter Regiments of Pau, Captain Clément Frison-Roche, of the 5th Combat Helicopter Regiments of Pau, Lieutenant Alex Morisse, of the 5th Combat Helicopter Regiments of Pau, Lieutenant Pierre Bockel, of the 5th Combat Helicopter Regiments of Pau, Chief Warrant Officer Julien Carette, of the 5th Combat Helicopter Regiments of Pau, Brigadier-Chief Romain Salles de Saint Paul, of the 5th Combat Helicopter Regiments of combat helicopters from Pau, Captain Romain Chomel de Jarnieu, of the 4th Regiment of hunters from Gap, the marshal of Head Quartermaster Alexandre Protin, of the 4th Gap Hunter Regiment, Quartermaster Antoine Serre, of the 4th Gap Hunter Regiment, Quartermaster Valentin Duval, of the 4th Gap Hunter Regiment, Head Quartermaster Jérémy Leusie, of the 93rd Mountain Artillery Regiment of Varces, Chief Sergeant Andreï Jouk, of 2nd Foreign Engineer Regiment of Saint-Christol.
Failing communication
Florence Parly, the Minister of the Armed Forces, announced that “an investigation (had been) opened in order to determine the exact circumstances of this tragedy” which brought to 38 the number of French soldiers killed in Mali since the start of the French intervention in 2013, with Operation Serval. The last fatal helicopter accident in the French army dates back to February 2018, when two helicopters from an army school crashed in the Varin the south-east of France, after a mid-air collision, killing five people.
