Two French soldiers die during an operation to free four hostages in Burkina Faso | Internationale

France lost two soldiers Friday as part of an operation to rescue two kidnapped tourists in Burkina Faso, West Africa. The badault, on the night of Thursday to Friday, freed Patrick Picque and Laurent Lbadimouillas, merchant and professor of music, captured during a safari in Benin, neighboring country. The French command also released an American woman and another South Korean woman. But in the operation two of the French naval officers who participated died, Cédric de Pierrepont and Alain Bertoncello.

The death of Pierrepont and Bertoncello brings to 17 the number of French soldiers killed as part of Operation Barkhane, initiated by France in 2014 to fight jihadist groups operating in the Sahel. During the operation, supported by the armed forces of Burkina Faso and the information provided by the United States, four kidnappers also died. French Defense Minister Florence Parly said at a press conference that it was "too early to talk" about the kidnappers' identity.

French President Emmanuel Macron plans to receive the four hostages released at the Villacoublay military base on Saturday afternoon. Early next week, Macron will preside over a ceremony tribute to the sailors who died during the operation at the Invalides, a monumental complex that honors French military glory and where Napoleon sits. In a statement, the French presidency announced that Macron "sinks with emotion and seriousness at the sacrifice of two soldiers who gave their lives to save that of their fellow citizens."

Picque and Lbadimouillas disappeared on May 1 during a safari in Pendjari, Benin. Three days after his disappearance, the decomposed corpse of Fiacre Gbedji, the Beninese guide accompanying them, was found. On the other side of the border, the vehicle in which the French tourists traveled and their guide was set on fire.

General Francois Lecointre, chief of the staff, explained that the French authorities had decided to react to the possibility that the kidnappers transfer the hostages to a terrorist group operating in Mali. "The precise and determined action of the French army has made it possible to neutralize the kidnappers by preserving the lives of the hostages, at the cost of the lives of two of our comrades," Lecointre said in a statement.

A Burkinabe source cited by The world he points out that it was the group Katiba Macina who had ordered the kidnapping and was going to receive French tourists to Mali, but that the direct abductors were members of the state Islamic of the Great Sahara. French authorities were not aware of the presence of US and South Korean citizens among the hostages, said Minister Parly. Macron, as head of the army, cleared the operation on Thursday, according to presidential sources quoted by the Agence France Presse, while he was at the top of the news. European Union in Sibiu (Romania).