By Anthony LattierPosted 17-12-2019Changed on 17-12-2019 at 00:32
Fifteen years after the bombing of Bouaké, Emmanuel Macron and Alassane Ouattara will pay tribute this Sunday to the nine French soldiers and the American soldier killed on November 6, 2004. A first. The French and Ivorian presidents will go to the Descartes high school, where the French camp targeted by the Ivorian army was in the midst of Laurent Gbagbo's power offensive against the rebellion. This drama had caused strong tensions between France and the Ivory Coast. The circumstances have still not been clarified.
Emmanuel Macron and Alassane Ouattara gathered side by side at the scene of the bombing of Bouaké. This should be one of the strong images of the French president's visit to Côte d'Ivoire.
Emmanuel Macron will be the first French president to go there since the tragedy. Descartes High School, where the French military camp was located, has since been rehabilitated as a public building, but some traces of the bombs dropped by the two Ivorian army planes in 2004 are still visible.
The French president will lay a wreath and unveil a plaque honoring the soldiers killed. This gesture will send an " important signal in the Franco-Ivorian relationship ", they say at the Élysée Palace. This bombing had frozen ties between the two countries for a long time and led to the repatriation of thousands of French people.
Fifteen years later, the reasons for this bombing of the Ivorian army on the French camp remain unclear. A trial, without the pilots of the planes, must be held next year in Paris. As for the 3 former ministers of Jacques Chirac who were challenged by the justice system, they ultimately escaped prosecution.
→ To re-read:
→ our series of five articles on the enigma of the bombing of Bouaké
→ our podcast, part 1 and part 2
→ The latest judicial information to date
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