France

The fourth day of the trial of the bombing of the French military camp Bouakéen in 2004 was marked by unparalleled information given to the bar by a soldier's widow regarding the black boxes on the planes used for the raid. The Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces at the time, General Bentégeat, confirmed that the black boxes on…

French Defense Minister Florence Parly visited Mali on Thursday and defended an air strike by France in the African country earlier this year that UN investigators say killed 19 civilians attending a wedding party. The Chief of Defense's visit, which had been planned for a long time but was not made public for security reasons, came two days after the UN mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, released a report on the air strike on 3 January. The report said the strike affected a wedding celebration for…

France faced increasing calls from rights groups on Thursday to launch an investigation into an airstrike by its forces in Mali that a UN investigation said killed 19 civilians at a wedding party. UN investigators released a report on Tuesday on the January 3 strike, concluding that it had killed 19 civilians and three gunmen near the central Mali village of Bounti. France, which has more than 5,000 troops in Mali and neighboring West African countries to fight militants linked to al-Qaeda and Daesh,…

Since Monday, the Assize Court in Paris has tried three pilots and co-pilots accused of murder and attempted murder in the case of the bombing of Bouaké in Côte d'Ivoire in 2004. On Wednesday morning, "one of the 38 French soldiers injured in the bombing, one of the most seriously affected , who gave a moving testimony. With our…

For the UN, it was mainly civilians who were killed on January 3 in the Barkhane strike near Bounti. The spokesman for Antonio Gutteres, the UN Secretary-General, expressed his concern about respect for the precautionary principle. In Paris, the Ministry of Defense and the military claim that Barkhane hit terrorists. as…

One of the largest underground uranium mines in the world is closing its doors. Akouta Mining Company (Cominak), a subsidiary of Orano Cycle (French multinational, formerly Areva), which has been using uranium deposits in the province of Agadez in northern Niger since 1978, will stop production on Wednesday 31 March. A closure carried out under unsatisfactory conditions for non-governmental organizations which, in addition to the social…

On January 3, 2021, Operation Barkhane targeted the village of Bounti, in central Mali. The French army was accused for weeks of mistakenly saying it was targeting jihadists who organized a rally. But the version of the human rights division of Minusma, the UN mission in Mali, is completely different. as reported from Bamako,…

At least 19 civilians were killed in a French airstrike in central Mali in January, according to a UN report on Tuesday by Agence France-Presse (AFP), which added that the victims were protected under international law. On January 3, French warplanes crashed near the remote village of Bounti in circumstances that sparked controversy in the war-torn Sahel state. Residents of the village said the strike hit a wedding party and killed civilians. But the French military denied the allegations, saying it…

The first day of negotiations is Monday, March 29, in Paris during the Bouaké bombing. On November 6, 2004, two Ivorian army aircraft landed on a French base in this city in Côte d'Ivoire, killing 10 and wounding 38. The aircraft was piloted by Belarusian mercenaries and aided by Ivorian co-pilots. This day was devoted to the call of witnesses, the reminder of the facts and the first hearings.…

France resumed its embassy in the Libyan capital Tripoli on Monday after a seven-year closure. "The embassy reopened in Tripoli on March 29, 2021," said a tweet from the diplomatic mission. Last week, Mohammad Menfi, head of the Libyan Presidency, announced during a press conference during his visit to Paris that the French embassy in Tripoli would be resumed. In July 2014, amid unrest following the 2011 ouster of strongman Moammar Gadhafi, the embassy closed its doors in Tripoli, but continued its work from Paris.…