Drunk French Soldier Shoots Two Comrades on Christmas Eve

THE FRENCH ARMY has confirmed that one of their soldiers shot and wounded two comrades at a base in Mali on Christmas Eve during a drunken row.

The shooter was one of 5100 French troops stationed in northwest Africa’s Sahel region to combat jihadist insurgents. The Christmas Eve shooting occurred late at night at a military base in Gao, Eastern Mali.

A spokesman for the French Army told AFP that two soldiers were “getting on each other’s nerves” during a drunken Christmas celebration on the base. “One soldier wounded two of his comrades with his service weapon”, which was an automatic pistol.

One of the gunshot victims was seriously wounded, though his condition is not life-threatening while the other soldier received only mild injuries. The shooter will be returned to France “once the probe is finished” into the incident, which is being investigated by military police.

French soldiers fight alongside troops from Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Niger in the war against radical jihadist insurgents who terrorise the Sahel region. France is currently considering cutting their troop numbers in Africa, ahead of a summit planned for February.


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Oisin Sweeney

Oisin is an Irish writer based in Seville, the sunny capital of Andalucia. After starting his working life as a bookseller, he moved into journalism and cut his teeth as a reporter at one of Ireland's biggest news websites. Since joining Euro Weekly News in November, he has enjoyed covering the latest stories from Seville, Spain and further afield - with special interests in crime, cybersecurity, and European politics. Anyone who can pronounce his name first try gets a free cerveza...

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