PARIS: The twoFrench tourists rescued from their kidnappers in Burkina Faso this week wereseized in an area of Benin that France has long advised travellers to avoid,Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said yesterday. "The zone where ourtwo citizens were has for some time now been considered a red zone, which meansit's a zone where you shouldn't go, where you're taking significant risks ifyou do go," Le Drian told Europe 1 radio.
The foreign ministry'stravel advisory website lists the areas of northern Benin near the border withBurkina Faso as "Formally Discouraged," including Pendjari NationalPark. It warns of "the presence of armed terrorist groups and the risk ofkidnapping." The French tourists, Patrick Picque, 51, and LaurentLassimouillas, 46, disappeared during a tour of Pendjari on May 1. Thedisfigured body of their guide was found shortly after they were reportedmissing, along with their abandoned Toyota truck.
Intelligenceagencies tracked their captors across the semi-desert terrain of easternBurkina Faso, where it appeared they would soon cross the border into Mali.Officials feared the hostages would be handed over to the Macina LiberationFront (FLM), a jihadist group formed in 2015 that is aligned with Al-Qaeda inthe region. French President Emmanuel Macron gave the order for the nighttimeraid Thursday on the militants' camp, in which Picque and Lassimouillas werefreed, along with an American woman and a South Korean woman.
The Frenchcommandos were unaware of the presence of the two other hostages, officialssaid. Four of the six kidnappers were killed, but two French soldiers also diedin the raid. Picque and Lassimouillas, along with the South Korean hostage whohas not yet been identified, arrived in Ouagadougou on Saturday, where theywere to meet with Burkina's President Roch Marc Christian Kabore, according toan AFP reporter at the presidential palace.
"Ourthoughts go out to the families of the soldiers, and to the soldiers who losttheir lives in freeing us from this hell," Lassimouillas said in a briefstatement. He and Picque were to return to Paris later yesterday, where Macronand Le Drian are to meet them at the Villacoublay military airport southwest ofthe capital.
'Avoid thesacrifices'
Although Beninhas long been spared the unrest seen in Mali and Burkina Faso, French officialshave warned that jihadist insurgents could extend their operations into thesparsely populated desert regions further south. "The threat is evolvingand has become much more mobile, and now countries to the south of Mali havebecome targets," Le Drian said yesterday. "The greatest precautionsmust be taken in these regions to avoid these types of kidnappings, and avoidthe sacrifices required by our soldiers," he said.
France'sOperation Barkhane counts some 4,500 troops deployed in Mali, Burkina Faso,Niger and Chad to help local forces battle militant groups. The raid on thekidnappers was led by the elite Hubert commando unit of the French navalspecial forces, which was deployed to the Sahel at the end of March. They wereassisted by Burkina and Benin authorities and by the United States, whichprovided intelligence and support. A total of 24 French soldiers have died inthe region since 2013 when France intervened to drive back jihadist groups whohad taken control of northern Mali. - AFP