The two French hostages freed by special forces and repatriated Saturday in France are "very marked" by what they lived and "very affected" by the death of two French soldiers and their guide, said Sunday the head of the Center crisis of the Quai d'Orsay.
"They are very tired and marked by their detention and also very affected by the consequences in human life of all this," said Eric Chevallier, who went to get them in Burkina Faso after their release on the night of Thursday to Friday. They are "in humility", "aware of the sacrifice of three lives", that of two commandos of the French special forces during their liberation in Burkina Faso and their guide during their kidnapping in Benin, he said.
The instructions to travelers had been "hardened"
Patrick Picque and Laurent Lassimouillas were kidnapped on May 1 during a tourist stay in Benin, a country previously spared by insecurity in West Africa but in a zone not recommended by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In the travel advice issued on the Quai d'Orsay site, red areas are "formally discouraged" and orange areas "not recommended unless imperative". The ministry can not formally prohibit travel, just make recommendations. "Their lodge was in the orange zone, so not recommended except imperative reason - but tourism is not part of it - and the car and the driver killed were found close to the border (Benin-Burkina Faso) in the red zone", a said the director of the Crisis and Support Center (CDCS).
The two tourists went on a safari in Pendjari Park, one of the last wildlife sanctuaries in West Africa, which stretches for nearly 5,000 km along the Burkinabe border. The instructions to travelers had been "hardened December 10, 2018 given the worsening security situation in Burkina and concerns about the porosity of the border," he said. The border area with Burkina was then classified "red" and part of the Pandjari Park where they were staying became "orange". The map was remodeled on May 10 and the entire Red Park after their removal, "given a better understanding of what had happened," added the head of the Quai d'Orsay.
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An ex-hostage admitted that they should have "taken more into account the recommendations of the State"
The two tourists were transferred from Benin to Burkina Faso and were preparing to move to Mali where they were handed over to a jihadist group, probably Katiba Macina, which would have complicated any operation to save them, according to the French authorities. The jihadist threat in the Sahel, initially concentrated in Mali, has since spread to Burkina Faso and now hangs over the Gulf of Guinea's coastal countries, previously spared, such as Benin.
Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian ruled that the two tourists had taken "major risks" by visiting a "zone considered for quite some time as a red zone". One of the two ex-hostages, Laurent Lassimouillas, conceded on Saturday that they should have "taken more account of the recommendations of the State".