Three survivors were found after the crash of a French military helicopter off Gabon, with one soldier dead and six still missing.
“The provisional toll is one dead, one seriously injured, one lightly injured, one who survived unhurt and six missing,” said Lieutenant-Colonel Francois-Marie Gougeon of the general staff in Paris.
Ten French soldiers, including four crew members and six special forces members, were earlier reported missing after the helicopter crashed into the sea on Saturday during a joint exercise off the coast of Gabon.
The Cougar transport helicopter went down off Nyonie, a small town situated between the capital, Libreville, and the town of Port-Gentil further south, Lieutenant-Colonel Pascal Carpentier said in Libreville.
It crashed at 8:08pm shortly after taking off from the landing craft transporter La Foudre, cruising 50km off the Gabonese coast, Gougeon said.
The ship “set off the alert and went to the scene of the crash with its own rescuers who picked up the injured within half an hour.
CALM CONDITIONS
“The sea was calm and the wind low at the time of the crash but the night was very dark,” he said, adding that “search operations will naturally continue all night” with La Foudre, two helicopters and vessels made available by French oil company Total.
An inquiry would be held into the causes of the accident “very soon,” Gougeon said.
The French presidential palace said in a statement earlier that President Nicolas Sarkozy had been informed about the crash and had “asked that all available means in the area be immediately deployed to find the soldiers who were aboard.”
Sarkozy ordered French Defense Minister Herve Morin to travel to the area. He was expected to leave early yesterday morning.
APPEAL FOR HELP
In Libreville, Carpentier said: “We have put all our available means into the operation. There are aircraft and La Foudre. We have also appealed to Total, which has put three vessels at our disposal.”
Six hundred soldiers backed by Cougar and Fennec helicopters were taking part in a joint exercise to coordinate maritime safety operations. During Operation N’Gari, men were to be parachuted onto predetermined targets including Nyonie.
Carpentier said 120 Gabonese troops participated in the exercise, due to run from Saturday until Wednesday.
“At daybreak we will deploy all our means, planes, helicopters, boats ... to take part in the search.”
Gabonese Interior Minister Andre Mba Obame said France had around 1,000 troops in Gabon, a former French colony, with one of four permanent bases in Africa.
The French Forces in Gabon are here to assure the safety of the 12,000 French residents in the country in case of threat and carry out aid missions, according to a press handout.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
‘DISCRIMINATION’: The US Office of Personnel Management ordered that public DEI-focused Web pages be taken down, while training and contracts were canceled US President Donald Trump’s administration on Tuesday moved to end affirmative action in federal contracting and directed that all federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) staff be put on paid leave and eventually be laid off. The moves follow an executive order Trump signed on his first day ordering a sweeping dismantling of the federal government’s diversity and inclusion programs. Trump has called the programs “discrimination” and called to restore “merit-based” hiring. The executive order on affirmative action revokes an order issued by former US president Lyndon Johnson, and curtails DEI programs by federal contractors and grant recipients. It is using one of the
RSS