On 25 November 2019, two French military helicopters, part of Operation Barkhane, crashed in northern Mali, killing 13 soldiers. It was the deadliest incident involving the French military since the

1983 Beirut barracks bombings Early on a Sunday morning, October 23, 1983, two truck bombs struck buildings in Beirut, Lebanon, housing American and French service members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon (MNF), a military peacekeeping operation during the Lebanese ...

Background

In November 2019, the city of Indelimane and its surroundings, located between Ansongo and Ménaka, were the scene of numerous clashes. The region was then one of the Islamic State's areas of action in the

Sahara , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

. On November 1, at least 49 Malian soldiers were killed in a jihadistic attack on the military base in the city. On November 2, an LAV escorting a convoy between

Gao Gao , or Gawgaw/Kawkaw, is a city in Mali and the capital of the Gao Region. The city is located on the River Niger, east-southeast of Timbuktu on the left bank at the junction with the Tilemsi valley. For much of its history Gao was an impor ...

and Ménaka ran into an improvised explosive device 20 kilometers from Indelimane: a French soldier was killed. On November 16, about 20 kilometers south of Indelimane, GCP commandos carried out an attack on a camp: five Islamic State jihadists were killed and a French commando was seriously injured during the fighting.

Incident

On November 22, 2019, the French army launched a large-scale operation in the Eranga Valley, located about twenty kilometers south of Indelimane. On November 25, late in the day, French forces launched an attack in the Liptako Gourma region against jihadists traveling in pick-ups and motorcycles. Around 5 p.m., GCP soldiers clashed with the jihadists. As night fell, they requested air support to cross the Wadi. Two Tiger helicopters and a

Cougar The cougar (''Puma concolor'') is a large Felidae, cat native to the Americas. Its Species distribution, range spans from the Canadian Yukon to the southern Andes in South America and is the most widespread of any large wild terrestrial mamm ...

, as well as a patrol of two

Mirage 2000 The Dassault Mirage 2000 is a French multirole, single-engine, fourth-generation jet fighter manufactured by Dassault Aviation. It was designed in the late 1970s as a lightweight fighter to replace the Mirage III for the French Air Force (''Arm ...

s, were mobilized. At around 7:40 p.m., while the helicopters were carrying out a maneuver intended to prepare for the enemy engagement, one of the two Tigers and the Cougar accidentally collided. The crash left no survivors. Thirteen French soldiers, including seven from the

5th Combat Helicopter Regiment The 5th Combat Helicopter Regiment (5e Régiment d'Hélicoptères de Combat) (5e RHC) is a unit of the French Army. It is currently based at Uzein near Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, and is equipped with Eurocopter Tiger HAP helicopters. The 5th ...

(5° RHC), and six operators from the Groupement de commandos de Montagne, were killed. On November 28, the Islamic State in West Africa claimed to have provoked the crash that had occurred three days earlier: "the soldiers of the caliphate fired in the direction of the helicopter, forcing it to retreat and eventually colliding with another helicopter, resulting in the death of thirteen soldiers." The next day, General François Lecointre, the

Armed Forces A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

' chief of staff, denied that jihadist fire had caused the collision: "This is absolutely incorrect. ..There was no attack by the jihadists,

ho were Ho (or the transliterations He or Heo) may refer to: People Language and ethnicity * Ho people, an ethnic group of India ** Ho language, a tribal language in India * Hani people, or Ho people, an ethnic group in China, Laos and Vietnam * Hiri Mo ...

being chased and marked in a certain way on the ground. And so there was no withdrawal of a plane in the face of jihadist fire."

Casualties

Six officers and a master corporal were among the 13 fatalities. One of those killed, Pierre-Emmanuel Bockel, was the son of French Senator Jean-Marie Bockel. Bockel was the pilot of the 'Cougar' helicopter. On December 2, France gave them a national tribune in the courtyard of the Hôtel des Invalides. President

Emmanuel Macron Emmanuel Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France since 2017. ''Ex officio'', he is also one of the two Co-Princes of Andorra. Prior to his presidency, Macron served as Minister of Econ ...

presented them with the posthumous

Legion of Honor The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ménaka helicopter crash, 2019 2019 disasters in Mali November 2019 events in Mali Aviation accidents and incidents in 2019 Aviation accidents and incidents in Mali Mid-air collision, 2019 Accidents and incidents involving French Air and Space Force aircraft 2019 in military history Mid-air collisions involving helicopters Mid-air collisions involving military aircraft French involvement in the Mali War