Paris (AFP/APP):The French army has already carried out an “internal investigation” into the circumstances in which three people died during one of its convoy patrols in Niger, Defence Minister Florence Parly said Sunday, in response to a request from the Nigerien government for a probe.
“There was an internal investigation, which showed that in the face of great violence, our soldiers demonstrated the necessary control and reacted adequately,” she said in an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche.
On Friday, Niger’s president Mohamed Bazoum had called for an investigation into the French military convoy heading to Mali that sparked violent protests and led to the deaths of three people.
The convoy making ran into trouble in Niger last month after being delayed by protests in Burkina Faso, with the Nigerien government reporting three deaths and more than a dozen wounded.
The supply convoy, which arrived on African soil in Ivory Coast earlier in the month, had crossed into Burkina Faso before entering Niger on its way to Mali.
It was heading for a base at Gao, central Mali, a hub of France’s Barkhane operation which is shoring up allies in the Sahel against a militants insurgency that began in northern Mali nearly a decade ago.
But clashes broke out at Tera in western Niger.
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