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The six French soldiers and the helicopter, which have been held since Wednesday at the airport in Bata, Equatorial Guinea’s economic capital, where they landed their planes to refuel, were allowed to leave the territory on Friday night, the French army confirmed to RFI.
The six French soldiers were allowed to land urgently in Bata on Wednesday afternoon. Since then, they have been held in the economic capital of Guinea, authorities accuse them of espionageAccording to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the Fennec helicopter was not allowed to fly over and land at Bata Airport. Paris assured its side that their aircraft barely had fuel. An incident that occurred shortly after final conviction of French Justice in Theodorine Obiang Nguema, vice president and son of the president of Guinea, for having spent almost 150 million euros in France in his country.
To put an end to these tensions, the French ambassador to Malabo, Olivier Brochenin, apologized to local media on Friday 30 July.
“It simply came to our notice then. It happened because of two technical errors on our part, and we have to admit it because we make mistakes. We are fortunate to have an annual approval for overflight. It is an honor and a gesture of friendship that Equatorial Guinea gives us. However, this condition prescribes that it is necessary to notify 72 hours before landing. Due to poor organization, this announcement was not made. There was a second fault: the authorization we have, and which is there to allow our security forces to cooperate precisely, this permit applies to a certain number of aircraft identified by numbers. For technical reasons, the helicopter identified on this list must benefit from repairs and it was another helicopter that introduced itself to Bata. And it was a helicopter whose identification was not on the approval list. As Ambassador, I would like to apologize to the Government and the authorities of Equatorial Guinea, if these mistakes have ever given rise to misunderstandings. “On Friday night, the French army confirmed to RFI that the six soldiers and the helicopter detained in Equatorial Guinea could finally land in Libreville, Gabon. “The end of the event,” the spokesman assured the armed forces.
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