France’s President Emmanuel Macron’s office said on Sunday that a French soldier, Brigadier Alexandre Martin, was killed in a mortar attack on a military camp in Gao, northern Mali.
According to the French defence ministry, Martin, a member of the 54th artillery regiment of Hyères, was killed in a salvo of about a dozen artillery rounds fired on Saturday at the French military base.
According to the statement, his death has confirmed France’s commitment to fighting terrorism with its partners in the region.
A military spokesman said that nine others were injured by the rounds, which were fired from an area known to be used by the Qaeda-linked GSIM Islamist insurgent group.
“Deep sadness at the news of the death in combat of Brigadier Alexandre Martin on January 22 in Gao, Mali. I salute his commitment,” the French army’s chief of general staff tweeted on Sunday.
There are more than 4,000 French military forces in the Sahel region of West Africa, most of them stationed in Mali, as part of the Barkhane anti-terror operation.
Since France first sent troops to the country nine years ago to fight a jihadist insurgency, it has spent approximately €880 million annually on a mission that has cost 53 French lives.
France has begun to reduce its presence in Mali, aiming to halve the contingent by 2023, and has asked its allies in the European Union for greater support.
As relations with the military junta that has ruled the country since a coup in August 2020 deteriorate rapidly, Paris is considering an earlier departure.
The French government is angry over the junta’s refusal to organize elections to install a civilian government, a move that has prompted sanctions from the ECOWAS bloc.
Paris has also condemned Mali’s alleged hiring of the Wagner group of mercenaries believed to be close to Russia’s leadership.
