In February 2024, the 4th Company of the 13th Foreign Legion Demi-Brigade (13e DBLE) deployed to Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, a former homeland of this regiment. The company will remain there for four months.
Upon its arrival, the Legion infantry unit was assigned to the 5th Overseas Combined Arms Regiment (5e RIAOM), a French overseas unit which replaced the Foreign Legion’s 13e DBLE as France’s main operational element in this small African country in 2011. The 5e RIAOM, which has occupied the demi-brigade’s military base in Djibouti City, comprises an HQ and three combat units (infantry, cavalry, combat engineers-artillerymen). These combat units consist of rotational personnel rotating every four months, coming from France. A French Army Light Aviation detachment is also assigned to the 5e RIAOM.
In addition to daily training, members of the 13e DBLE perform the usual tasks in Djibouti. Among them are maintaining a French presence in a region that was once a French colony, conducting military exercises with U.S. soldiers from Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, providing military training to local troops, and familiarizing themselves with the semi-desert environment.
For the record, the 4th Company 13e DBLE is not the sole Legion element in Djibouti now. A platoon of the 2nd Foreign Engineer Regiment (2e REG) also deployed there in February.
The current deployment of both Legion units in the Horn of Africa is scheduled to last four months, until June 2024.
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