Romain Rouillard / Photo credit: SERGE PAGANO / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 6:10 a.m., March 1, 2024
For the 50th anniversary of the GIGN, celebrated this Friday March 1, Europe 1 invites you to dive back into three significant interventions by the elite unit of the National Gendarmerie, from Djibouti to New Caledonia, via the tarmac of the Marignane airport, near Marseille.
The GIGN is 50 years old.
During these five decades, this elite unit of the National Gendarmerie has forged its reputation through high-risk, sometimes spectacular, often highly perilous interventions.
A look back at three operations which made the legend of the GIGN.
Loyada 1976: rescue of children in the middle of the desert
This is the operation that made GIGN known throughout the world.
But Christian Prouteau, founder of this elite unit, also describes it as “the most painful”.
It is February 3, 1976 in Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa.
A school bus carrying 31 sons and daughters of soldiers based in Djibouti was taken hostage and then diverted to Loyada, on the Somali border.
Christian Prouteau brings together nine of his men.
A force apparently sufficient to overcome the kidnappers supposed to be only three.
“We had developed a kind of shooting that no one had managed to do at that time: simultaneous shooting. We were sure of being able to neutralize the three men in the same second,” says Christian Prouteau in a podcast called “Je I couldn't save them all.
>>
READ ALSO
- “A resident pulled down his pants”: faced with growing incivility, mayors trained by the GIGN
The commando then goes there and learns that the terrorists finally numbered four, then five, six and even eight.
In reality, they had collusion with the Somali soldiers present there.
The hostage takers then threaten to execute a child every hour.
Eventually, a firing window opens and five men are shot dead.
“At that moment, hell begins,” relates Christian Prouteau.
His men came under fire from an enemy machine gun.
Pinned to the ground for many minutes, two of the soldiers still managed to reach the bus.
One of them finds himself confronted by a hostage-taker who fires, killing a little girl and injuring several children.
Two little girls died and several children remained handicapped for life.
One of them, considered "Loyada's third victim", ended up committing suicide.
“Even if I received thanks, it was not enough for me. We were there to bring all the children back to their parents,” regrets Christian Prouteau, more than 45 years after the events.
Ouvéa 1988: the cave of hell
A tense political context which leads to a hostage taking.
Direction New Caledonia, a territory under French control since 1853, prey to independence desires led by the Socialist Kanak National Liberation Front (FLNKS).
In 1988, the presidential election in France, coupled with a regional vote, supposed to seal a new status for the island, forced the gendarmerie to secure the election.
At the Fayaoué station, the situation degenerates.
A commando of separatists rushes into the gendarmerie and forms two groups of hostages who will leave in opposite directions.
One of them will land in a cave in the middle of the jungle.
Philippe Legorjus, commander of the GIGN at the time, contacted Jean Bianconi, first deputy public prosecutor.
The two men decide to contact the hostage-takers and are taken prisoner.
>>
READ ALSO
- New Caledonia: thirty years ago, the hostage-taking in Ouvéa
Faced with hungry, thirsty kidnappers and on the verge of exhaustion, Commander Legorjus decides to organize a supply and sees the possibility of getting the hostages out of the rut through negotiation.
But in Paris, the reading of the situation is completely different.
“They overdid things and said ‘We must prepare the assault’ as if we were facing Daesh when the negotiations were already well underway,” Philippe Legorjus explains to us.
The separatists promise him progress in the release of the hostages, on condition that he can explain, on camera, to a team of journalists from Antenne 2, the reasons which push them to demand independence.
Bernard Pons, Minister of Overseas Territories at the time, gave the green light, but the operation was ultimately canceled, to the great dismay of Philippe Legorjus.
Order is given to launch the assault.
“It was a very brutal assault which resulted in 19 deaths on the Kanak side and two deaths on the military side. I regret that I was not allowed to go through to the end,” sighs the commander.
A version contradicted by Christian Prouteau, who advised President François Mitterrand, according to whom Philippe Legorjus contacted him precisely "so that Mitterrand would not oppose the intervention".
Marignane 1994: 54 hours of anguish
This is the story of an Algiers-Paris flight which ended in horror for 227 passengers and 12 crew members.
On December 24, 1994, four members of the GIA (armed Islamic group) took the aircraft hostage, which remained grounded for 54 hours.
After an unsuccessful negotiation attempt and the death of two hostages, Prime Minister Edouard Balladur offered France's support.
Categorical refusal from the Algerian authorities.
At the same time, the GIGN takes a position in Palma de Mallorca in Spain, with a view to possible intervention.
The plane ends up taking off, but will not be able to go to Paris due to lack of kerosene.
"We didn't know where it was going to land. The GIGN decided to set up at Marignane airport. The snipers set up and bingo! The plane landed in Marignane", relates Bernard Thellier, former GIGN negotiator.
Nine soldiers were injured, but the hostages were finally evacuated through the rear of the aircraft.
None were hit, unlike the hostage-takers, all of whom died.
Crowned with success, the operation led by Denis Favier will earn the members of the GIGN the opportunity to receive, at the Élysée, the congratulations of President François Mitterrand.