France will not back down on the "fight against terrorism" after the killing of 13 French soldiers during a combat mission in Mali, France's military minister said Tuesday.
"We are receiving valuable support from our European allies and uniting to protect Europe from the catastrophe of terrorism," Barley told a news conference.
"We stand tall, united, decisive. This is the solidarity that strengthens us and allows us to continue fighting," she said, noting that "an investigation has been opened with the aim of determining the precise circumstances of this tragedy."
Thirteen French soldiers from the "Barkhan" force were killed Monday evening in Mali in a helicopter collision during a military operation against "jihadists".
"These 13 heroes had only one goal: to protect us," French President Emmanuel Macron wrote in a tweet.
A statement by the French presidency that Macron alive "with the utmost respect the memory of these soldiers from the ground forces, six officers and six assistants and corporal, who were killed during the operation and killed for France in the difficult battle against terrorism in the Sahel."
The government of Mali and President of Burkina Faso Rock Marc Christian Kaburi on social networking sites today expressed their solidarity with France, whose soldiers are fighting fighters of armed movements alongside their armies.
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This is the largest human death toll of French soldiers since the beginning of their deployment in the coast in 2013, and one of the largest losses since the bombing of the headquarters of "Drakar" in Lebanon in 1983, which killed 58 people.
The incident brings to 41 the number of French soldiers killed in the Sahel since the start of French intervention in 2013 with Operation "Serval", according to a census conducted from figures published by the Chief of Staff.
Operation Barkhan, which followed in August 2014, is taking part in Operation Serval 4,500 French military personnel in the Sahel, which extends over an area the size of Europe, to support the armies of countries fighting "jihadists."
But after six years of French intervention, violence is still raging in northern Mali, spreading in the center of the country as well as in neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.
Since 2012, attacks as well as inter-communal violence have killed thousands of people and displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians.
Forty-three Malian soldiers were killed in mid-November in an attack in the east of the country near the border with Niger, in addition to about 100 Malian soldiers killed in two attacks in a month in the autumn in the same border region between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.