Helicopter crash: French soldier killed in Ivory Coast

The French helicopter crashed on Tuesday late in the afternoon making one dead and injured.
  

A French soldier was killed and another seriously injured Tuesday in the crash of a military helicopter near Abidjan. In the aftermath of this accident, the causes were still unknown.

The French Gazelle helicopter crashed around 17:00 in Modeste, a village about ten kilometers east of the Ivorian economic capital, near the coast, according to a military source who expressed on condition of anonymity.

A base used for the fight against jihadist groups in the Sahel

The helicopter belongs to the French Forces in Ivory Coast (FFCI), which have a large base near the airport of Abidjan, always according to this source.

The FFCI have about 950 men, and constitute the main French base on the African Atlantic coast. This military base is used in particular in the context of Operation Barkhane fighting against jihadist groups in the Sahel.

On 14 October 2017, a transport plane chartered by the French army crashed into the sea near the Abidjan airport, killing four Moldovans and wounding four French and two Moldovans on board.