Like the other regiments of the French Foreign Legion, even the 1st Foreign Engineer Regiment (1er REG) and the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment (1er REC) are to be largely deployed overseas this year.
13e DBLE: Three companies to deploy overseas in 2020
In 2020, at least three compagnies of the 13th Foreign Legion Half Brigade (13e DBLE) are to be deployed overseas this year, according to their commanding officer, Colonel Jacques Bouffard. Two of them will serve in Africa.
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2e REI: 750 legionnaires to deploy overseas
In 2020, around 750 legionnaires of the 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment (2e REI) will deploy overseas, according to their commanding officer, Colonel Arnaud Guerry. The vast majority of the men take part in anti-terrorist Operation Barkhane in Mali, West Africa.
Rescue mission in Loyada: 44th anniversary
The paratroopers of the French Foreign Legion, together with French elite counter-terrorism policemen and cavalrymen of the Legion’s 13th Half-brigade, participated in a hostage rescue mission 44 years ago, in early February 1976. The mission to rescue 31 French children kidnapped by local militants took place at Loyada, a small border village in then French Somaliland, today’s Djibouti (Horn of Africa). See more information.
38 years ago: 1982 Mont Garbi Accident
38 years ago, on 3 February 1982, a common French military exercise had to take place in Djibouti, a country in the Horn of Africa. In the morning, a French Foreign Legion airborne platoon were lined up at a French air base. It was their only 10th day in Africa. The Legion paratroopers were ordered to carry out a routine training jump over a drop zone located nord-west of the capital. The legionnaires boarded their aircraft and took off…
DLEM: 2020 Video Presentation
See a short but new official video presentation of the Foreign Legion Detachment in Mayotte (DLEM), the last permanent post of the French Foreign Legion to remain in Africa.
165 years ago: Another French Foreign Legion organized
See the history of another Foreign Legion organized in France, this time in early 1855, to take part in the Crimean War against the Russian Empire. The second Legion was composed of the Swiss exclusively and distinguished from the first one by their green uniform. It eventually became the 1st Foreign Regiment and was sent to Algeria. The unit lost its Swiss character in 1859.
Read more165 years ago: Another French Foreign Legion organized
2e REI: Training for Africa 2020
See a video of a platoon from the 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment (2e REI) that is training in France before their deployment to Mali in West Africa, to participate there in anti-terrorist Operation Barkhane.