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After nine years of military presence and 53 casualties, Emmanuel Macron announced that French soldiers would leave Mali. The France Télévisions teams collected the testimonies of certain relatives of the soldiers who fell in the Sahel.
From his son who fell in Mali, Dominique Protin has kept memories, and some portraits. On November 25, 2019, somewhere in Mali, 13 French soldiers died in a helicopter crash during an operation against an armed jihadist group. Warrant Officer Alexandre Protin was 33 years old, and spent ten years in the army. “If today we live peacefully… We are not going to relive these attacks, it is thanks to all these men, who fight, and prevent terrorism from arriving at our doors”says Dominique.
A week after the accident, France paid tribute to the 13 fallen soldiers. Among them was Captain Pierre Bockel, who was on his fourth mission to Mali. For his father, Jean-Marie, former Secretary of State for Defence, the end of Operation Barkhane is difficult to accept. “This departure from Mali, where our children died, how do you expect that to leave us indifferent, since things could have happened differently?”, he asks. Dominique Protin followed from his home the official announcement of the withdrawal of French troops. He remains convinced that if France leaves Mali, it must not abandon the region.