Credit:  foreignlegion.info /  13e DBLE legionnaires alongside Malian troops in Mali, March 2018.

By Gary Raynaldo      DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

A soldier from France’s Foreign Legion died Friday from wounds sustained during in an operation against jihadists in Mali,  President Emmanuel Macron reported. The death brings to 42 the number of soldiers killed from France’s operation in the Sahel region since it first stationed troops there in 2013 to help train and assist local forces against Islamic insurgents.  Macron said in a statement the legionnaire was wounded by a bomb in the West African country on 23 April during “an operation against armed terrorist groups”.   The injured soldier was evacuated to a military hospital in Paris where he died.   Last November 2019, two helicopters collided, killing  13 French soldiers fighting Islamic State group-linked extremists in Mali,   its highest military death toll in nearly four decades.  French Foreign Legion units are  part of France’s Operation Barkhane  anti-terrorist operation in the Sahel region of Africa.   Launched  in 2014, the operation replaced Operation Serval (in Mali, 2013-14) and Operation Épervier (in Chad, 1986-2014). Five  five countries are targeted by Operation Barkhane – Mali, Chad, Mauritania, Niger and Burkina Faso. 

New Task Force To Bolster France Operation Barkhane, G5 Sahel Joint Action 

Credit:  foreignlegion.info /  French Operation Barkhane in Africa. The small flags mark French military bases.

Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, the Netherlands, and Portugal last month committed troops to a new French-led special forces mission in the Africa Sahel region called Task Force Takuba.   The move comes as the U.S. plans troop reductions in the  troubled Sahel.   Terror and violent attacks linked to militant Islamic groups in the Africa Sahel  region have increased dramatically during the past few years.  On  March 19,  at least   29  Malian soldiers  were killed in an attack  on an army post in northeast Mali.  It was the deadliest attack since last November 2019  when at least 54 soldiers  were killed in an attack  on an army base in northern Mali. France  also announced it will deploy an additional 220 troops to the Sahel to beef up its current 4,500-strong Operation Barkhane force.