Bloomberg
French president Emmanuel Macron said 13 soldiers died in a helicopter accident on November 25 during an anti-terrorism operation in Mali.
The accident occurred during a military operation against extremists, the French Presidency said in a statement.
The accident raises the death toll in France’s anti-terrorism military operation in the Sahel region to more than 30. France started military missions in Mali in 2013 and also has soldiers in Burkina Faso and Niger.
Mali has been engulfed in conflict since a loose alliance of ethnic Tuareg separatists and extremist fighters with ties to Algeria and Libya seized large swathes of the north in 2012.