In early February 1976, two French Foreign Legion units were involved in an important hostage rescue mission in Loyada, a small village located at the border between modern-day Djibouti and Somalia, in the Horn of Africa. Their objective was to save 31 French children kidnapped by local militants from a Pan-Somali guerrilla organization supported by the Somali government. Although the Foreign Legion was conducting such an exceptional anti-terrorist mission for the very first time, the legionnaires did well.
La version française de cet article: Prise d’otages de Loyada en 1976
Prelude to the mission
In the Horn of Africa in 1896, France officially established French Somaliland. The small territory was an important, strategic place known as a gate to the Red Sea with the Suez Canal, the latter connecting the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean. In 1960, neighboring Somalia (then a British colony) gained its independence. The new state laid claim to French Somaliland. Three years later, in 1963, a new guerrilla organization was created: Somali Coast Liberation Front (FLCS). Sponsored by the new Somali government, their proclaimed goal was to liberate the small French territory and connect it to Somalia.
In 1967, French Somaliland was officially renamed the French Territory of Afars and Issas (TFAI). Three years later, in 1970, the FLCS launched its first terrorist attack (bombing a bar in Djibouti City, the capital of the TFAI). Between 1974 and 1975, violent demonstrations for independence occurred in the country, organized by the FLCS militants. In 1975, the same organization kidnapped a French ambassador in Somalia to be exchanged later for two imprisoned FLCS members.
On December 31, 1975, pre-negotiations regarding the independence of the TFAI were held in Paris between French and TFAI officials. On January 30, 1976, TFAI officials made a formal complaint to the Organization of African Unity against Somalia. They asked Somali government to change their “negative and obstructionist” attitude towards the TFAI.
February 3, 1976: 31 French children kidnapped
In the morning of February 3, 1976, a military bus driven by 19-year-old soldier Jean-Michel Dupont left Air Base 188, a French military air base situated within the Ambouli International Airport of Djibouti City, the capital of TFAI. On board with him were 31 children, between 5 and 12 years old, of French servicemen from the base.
At 07:15 a.m. (07h15), the bus was attacked and hijacked by four armed FLCS militants dressed up as women. They ordered the bus driver to go to Loyada, a small village located on the TFAI-Somalia border, about 11 miles (18 km) southeast of Djibouti. Loyada was the only official border crossing with Somalia at the time.
The militants with the hijacked bus had to pass a checkpoint on the 9-mile-long (14 km) barbed wire barrier which had surrounded the whole capital since 1966 riots. The checkpoint was occupied by a platoon of the French Motorized Gendarmerie (GM), led by Adjudant Viard. The kidnappers fired at the gendarmes. The platoon informed their officers about the incident and pursued the bus.
Around 07:45 a.m. (07h45), the bus arrived at Loyada. There, the militants were confronted by legionnaires from the 13th Foreign Legion Demi-Brigade (13e DBLE), a unit permanently stationed in the TFAI since 1962. The legionnaires were operating a checkpoint there. They negotiated with the militants until an order arrived from French officials – the bus was allowed to park in no man’s land, between the French and Somali territories, only a few dozen yards from the Somali border outpost.
The demands of the FLCS militants were: to free all imprisoned FLCS members; to annul a planned referendum in the TFAI; to end the French ruling over the TFAI. If refused, the militants were ready to kill all the kidnapped children.
Legionnaires and GIGN alerted
Besides the already mentioned 13e DBLE, we could find in the TFAI in early 1976 also a company of the well-known 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment (2e REP) from Corsica, France. Since October 1974, this regiment had been deploying on a regular basis one of its five combat companies to the TFAI to reinforce the 13e DBLE and help their comrades with carrying out military tasks in the region. When in the TFAI, 2e REP companies were administratively attached to the 13e DBLE and became temporarily its company team (named Rotational Company). Each 2e REP company being deployed to the Horn of Africa at the time stayed there for about six months.
In February 1976, it was Captain Soubirou and his 2nd Company, 2e REP who constituted the 13e DBLE’s Rotational Company. The unit had been deployed to the TFAI since December 1975.
On February 3, French officials reacted quickly and all French Foreign legionnaires stationed in the TFAI were put on alert.
Furthermore, the GIGN (National Gendarmerie Intervention Group) was alerted in France. Though nowadays an elite counter-terrorist police tactical unit, the GIGN in 1976 was relatively small. It was activated in 1974 to specialize in sensitive hostage situations. The Loyada mission was in fact the unit’s very first operation conducted outside of France. The GIGN received an order to deploy immediately to the TFAI.
Finally, in the evening, another Foreign Legion unit was alerted: the Foreign Legion Operational Group (GOLE), a battalion-sized intervention force organized in Corsica in 1971. It was assigned to the reactivated 2e RE (future 2e REI) in 1972. The GOLE also received an order to be ready to deploy to the TFAI.
Legionnaires: Arrival at Loyada
The 2nd Company, 2e REP left the capital for Loyada. In the afternoon, the company was reinforced by the Reconnaissance Squadron (ER) of the 13e DBLE, equipped with Panhard AML armored cars. Two snipers from the 1st Company, 13e DBLE completed the legionnaires present on the spot.
The paratroopers from the 2nd Company, 2e REP entrenched themselves in a palm grove located some 270 yards (250 m) from the bus. The 2e REP and 13e DBLE snipers were set in an outpost of the local Autonomous Nomad Group (Groupement Nomade Autonome, GNA), a pro-French police unit consisting of local auxiliaries and French leaders. A group of 2e REP legionnaires was set next to the outpost.
The GNA outpost was located at the same distance from the bus as the palm grove. The 13e DBLE squadron and their AMLs were waiting about 550 yards (500 m) behind it.
In the afternoon, a female social assistant serving with 13e DBLE legionnaires at their military base joined voluntarily the children in the bus.
Preparation
General Pierre Brasart took command of the rescue mission. A former airborne commando, General Brasart served as the Chief of the TFAI French Armed Forces at that time. He established his HQ in the same palm grove as was the position of the 2nd Company, 2e REP.
A team of snipers from the GIGN, arriving in the TFAI in the early morning of February 4, joined the mission. The team consisted of nine men: eight snipers led by Lieutenant Prouteau, the founder of the GIGN unit and its first commander. The GIGN snipers were equipped with FR F1 rifles. They positioned themselves about 90 yards (80 m) in front of the 2e REP legionnaires.
Having been stationed at Loyada since the morning of February 3, the platoon of the Motorized Gendarmerie (GM) led by Adjudant Viard completed the present French forces. Equipped with the same AMLs as the 13e DBLE squadron, the motorized gendarmes stayed behind the GNA outpost, some 900 yards (800 m) away from the bus.
Somali Army troops positioned themselves behind the barbed wire on the Somali side of the border. Their weapons, including machine guns, were aimed at French positions. An unspecified number of FLCS militants were also present at the Somali border. Some of them would reinforce the militants in the bus during the night.
February 4, 1976: Rescue operation
The French waited for a moment for all militants in the bus to be up and visible. Then a GIGN team could shoot them without the risk of inciting them to take revenge on the children.
At 03:45 p.m. (15h45), an order was given to rescue the children. GIGN snipers fired coordinated shots to kill the kidnappers. In response, the Somali guns opened fire. This was the signal for the paratroopers. The 2e REP legionnaires launched a frontal attack and ran forward under enemy fire. They were designated to ensure the rescue of the children and to eliminate the Somali gunfire.
Lieutenant Doucet‘s 1st Platoon ran into a grove on the Somali side from which an MG 42 fired. But the lieutenant in the lead was wounded and thus, it was Staff Sergeant Raoul who would continue the assault with energy. Right next to them, in the center, the 2nd Platoon with Staff Sergeant Jorand was running to storm the bus with the children, supported from the GNA post by Legion snipers of Lieutenant Andrieu. Corporals Larking and Lemoine entered the vehicle and quickly neutralized two militants who had escaped the GIGN fire.
Simultaneously, 13e DBLE AMLs darted forward to help the 2e REP men to eliminate the Somali fire. The GM platoon moved to the GNA outpost to be ready there as a reserve unit. At 04:05 p.m. (16h05), the rescue operation was over.
1976 Loyada Rescue mission: Results
All militants who were responsible for kidnapping the children were killed. Other FLCS militants as well as at least one Somali troop which had opened fire at legionnaires and French positions were neutralized too. Unfortunately, a little girl was killed by a gun burst. Five children were wounded, two of them seriously. A boy went missing. It was later discovered that he had been kidnapped by militants to Somalia.
Results:
– 7 Somali FLCS militants were killed
– a Somali soldier was killed (according to a French official statement)
– Somali officials later stated that 6 Somali servicemen were killed during the attack
– 20 FLCS militants and Somali troops were wounded
– a girl was killed (Nadine Durand, aged 5)
– she was killed by a militant’s gun burst while running to the driver
– 5 children were wounded, two of them seriously (Valérie Geissbuhler and David Brisson)
– the driver and the female assistant were also wounded
– the driver was shot by the same gun burst as the little girl
– his left leg was nearly cut off
– he never recovered and became disabled
– Lieutenant Doucet was seriously wounded
– the then commander of 1st Platoon, 2nd Company, 2e REP
– a boy was kidnapped to Somalia
– Franck Rutkovsky (also sometimes Franck Rutkowski), aged 7
– he was released a few days later
– Valérie Geissbuhler (aged 7) was among the two seriously wounded kids
- this little girl was the granddaughter of a former legionnaire
- she was quickly sent to the hospital in Paris, France
- nevertheless, she died from her injuries a few days later
- Valérie became the second victim of the kidnapping
- on February 13, she was buried in Aubagne, southern France
- the main garrison town of the Foreign Legion
– David Brisson (aged 6) was the second seriously wounded kid
- the poor little boy lost his left eye and part of his face
- because of the visible permanent damage, he committed suicide in 2014
- he became the third and last victim of the kidnapping
1976 Loyada Rescue mission: Aftermath
The 1976 Loyada rescue mission was the first serious anti-terrorist mission of the sort for both the GIGN and legionnaires. Despite that, the gendarmes and legionnaires did well and the mission is perceived as successful.
The wounded children were transported to the hospital in Paris.
The wounded Lieutenant Doucet was also sent to Paris to be hospitalized. At Camp Raffalli on 30 April 1976, he and Jehanne Bru, the courageous female assistant, were awarded with the Legion d’Honneur. Five years later, in 1981, Captain Doucet would be back in Djibouti, at the head of the 13e DBLE’s CECAP Commando training center.
In Corsica, the departure of the GOLE (originally planned on February 4) was postponed. The legionnaires left Corsica the next day, on February 5. Unfortunately, six of them would become victims of an accident that occurred in the TFAI in May: the 1976 Djibouti helicopter crash, largely forgotten in France nowadays.
Over the next several weeks, the 13e DBLE legionnaires were protecting the military buses carrying French children to school in Djibouti.
In 2016, the kidnapped children founded an association called The Forgotten of Loyada (Les oubliés de Loyada). They blame French officials for never being officially recognized as victims of terrorism.
The same year, a detailed book called Les enfants de Loyada (The children of Loyada) was published, to commemorate an already forgotten event.
In 2019, a French-Belgian film was released, 15 Minutes of War (L’intervention in France), which is said to be inspired by the sad event. However, it is a poor Hollywood-style fiction having nothing to do with the reality.
—-
Main information & images source:
Képi blanc magazines
Jean-Claude Saulnier: Une vie de légionnaire: De Kolwezi à l’Afghanistan avec le 2e REP (Nimrod, 2013)
GIGN History (FR)
ITN Source (EN)
wikipedia.org
———
You can support this website at any time through our store. Thank you.
EU-based readers can visit our EU-based shop, to avoid import charges.
—
More from the history of the Foreign Legion:
1863 Battle of Camerone
1882 Battle of Chott Tigri
1908 Forthassa Disaster
1911 Battle of Alouana
Foreign Legion in the Balkans: 1915-1919
1932 Turenne Rail Accident
1954 Battle of Dien Bien Phu
1976 Djibouti helicopter crash
1978 Battle of Kolwezi
1982 Mont Garbi Accident
—
The page was updated on: February 04, 2021