Death of two French soldiers in Burkina Faso: "there was a body-to-body and they lost"

Two soldiers lost their lives on Friday at the release of the French hostages missing in Benin. They belonged to the prestigious commando of national Navy based in the var. A mission seen as a "feat " by Admiral Jean-Louis Vichot, guest Friday of franceinfo.

The two French disappeared on 1 may in Benin were released on the night of Thursday 9 to Friday 10 May by the French forces. Two French NCOs fell into battle. Men of the Hubert commando, who had already experienced the fight, who had survived. What makes this operation a feat is that to be sure not to reach the hostages, they went to contact. There was a body-to-body and in this body-to-body, they lost ", says Friday, May 10 on usainformations Admiral Jean-Louis Vichot, former international relations officer for the Chief of the naval staff.

usainformations: Florence Parly, the Minister of defense, spoke of a real feat. What is difficult to achieve in this type of operation?

Jean-Louis Vichot: what is difficult to achieve is that it is the very type of operation that was not planned to begin. And no one had imagined that these two tourists, whose existence nobody knew, would be abducted in a National Park, even if it was in a somewhat dangerous area. And so it took, as soon as we knew their abduction, to deploy ways to try to find out where they could be. Once they had been spotted, they had to follow them and as they were followed, prepare the rescue operation simultaneously, that is to say, dispatch the means of intervention this time, so special forces that are prowled to counter-terrorism and specifically to rescue the hostages in danger. Route them on the spot and then put them near the detachment without losing track and then place them in the right place so they can act at the right time.

Le commando Hubert est particulièrement bien entraîné pour ce type d'opération ?

I am well acquainted with the Hubert commando because I was fortunate in my career to command two nuclear attack submarines and therefore to implement the swimmers of the Hubert Commando. He's one of the naval assault commandos. The Navy has seven commandos, four of which are assault commandos. And the particularity of the Hubert commando is what we call the combat swimmers at home, that is, they also have this ability to fight underwater. That was not the case. They were in their skills "ordinary" commando or rather "extraordinary ", those to be able to do hand operations, to go and get hostages in the midst of their kidnappers and extract them. To make counter-terrorism too.

How are they selected?

These are people who are selected first among the marine Fusiliers for most of them. If you look at the biography of the two sailors who were killed, one of them actually started with the Red Pompom as a sailor in a company of marine Fusiliers. And then he managed very quickly by his performance, he was out major of his elementary patent class, the first course we do in the army, and he applied for the commandos and he survived the very rigorous training that we do. He was the team leader. The second, Bertoncello, the youngest, made the school of maistrance, that is, he entered directly as a petty officer, an officer in the Navy and he quickly acquired the quality of combat swimmer. And both were teammates accustomed to working in the most extreme conditions and frequently in the wilderness since that's where we have a lot of special operations. It started in Afghanistan and it has been going on for more than five years in the Sahelian zone. Both were recognized commandos, the first was 15 years of service, the second, 8 years if I remember correctly, so these are people who have already experienced the fight, who had survived.

What is the reason for these two deaths?

The Chief of staff was very clear. This is also what makes this operation a feat. That is to say that to be sure not to reach the hostages, they went to contact directly without opening the fire beforehand, contrary to what we usually where to limit the losses, we send a carpet of bombs and then we will look if it remains pieces in a State to defend themselves. This is the opposite. We're going to attack healthy human beings, but we're going to try to surprise them. There was an approaching phase of 200 meters uncovered. Imagine! People are crawling in the night, there is no obstacle to hiding. It is their discretion both accoustic and Visual that does the rest. They approached up to a dozen yards of four shelters. This is where we see that the band was used to. It was not concentrated. It's kind of like Cowboys and Indians. They are not in the middle of the carts with a fire. They are each in a concealed shelter. Four shelters that are going to be attacked at the same time by four groups of commandos. One of his groups may have fallen on more seasoned people. There was a body-to-body, and in that body-to-body, they lost.