France Operation Barkhane anti-insurgent campaign in Mali’s Sahel region continues despite military coup in the west African nation. 

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French anti-jihadist troops in Mali killed a civilian on Tuesday and wounded two others after a bus refused to slow down in a volatile area despite their orders, the French army command said, as reported by AFP.  The incident occurred about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from the city of Gao in Mali’s troubled north. The French soldiers fired warning shots in the ground but two bullets ricocheted and hit the windscreen, wounding three people, including one fatally, the French army command said – AFP.    But bus company director Abdoulaye Haidara disputed the army command’s version of events, telling AFP that his driver had denied refusing to stop and did not hear any warning shots. 

France continue its Operation Barkhane anti-insurgent campaign in Mali’s Sahel region despite a military coup last  month.  Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta resigned after a military mutiny that has plunged the country in to political chaos. President Keïta and Prime Minister Boubou Cissé were arrested and taken to a military camp near the capital Bamako.   Keïta was later released.  Some 5,000 French troops are installed in the Sahel as part of France’s operation against terrorist militants there.

“Operation Barkhane, requested by the Malians and authorized by the UN Security Council, continues. French soldiers, in conjunction with European and Sahelian partners, continue to carry out their mission with professionalism, for the benefit of everyone’s security.”

-French Defense Minister Florence Parly

44 FRENCH SOLDIERS KILLED IN AFRICA SAHEL SINCE  2014

French brigadier-chef Andy Fila died in north-central Africa  Chad on July 31, 2020.   / Etat Major des Armées

Forty Four soldiers have been killed from France’s Operation Barkhane in the Sahel region since it first stationed troops there in 2014 to help train and assist local forces against Islamic insurgents.   On July 31, 2020, Andy Fila,  a 25-year-old,  a French brigadier-chef of the infantry regiment,  was fatally hit by the explosion of a gas cylinder while carrying out an intervention on a refrigeration unit at the Kossei base in N’Djamena.