1er REC: 1st Squadron in Djibouti in 2024 | French Foreign Legion Information

In early November 2024, the 1st Squadron of the 1st Foreign Cavalry Regiment (1er REC), nicknamed as “Romans,” officially became the 3rd Squadron 5th Overseas Combined Arms Regiment (5e RIAOM). This French regiment is stationed in Djibouti, Horn of Africa. The Foreign Legion cavalrymen will serve there for at least three months.

In Djibouti, apart from daily duties, the regiment’s units carry out usual tasks: familiarizing themselves with a semi-desert environment, maintaining French presence in the region that once used to be a French colony, conducting military exercises with U.S. soldiers from the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, and providing military instruction to the local forces.

This early November, also Foreign Legion combat engineers from the 1er REG became part of the 5e RIAOM.

In 2011, the 5e RIAOM replaced the Foreign Legion’s 13e DBLE as France’s main operational element in this small African country which is also strategically important due to its location, as the gate to the Red Sea. The 5e RIAOM, which occupies the demi-brigade’s former military base in Djibouti City, comprises an HQ and three combat units (an infantry company, a cavalry squadron, a combined company of artillerymen and combat engineers). These combat units consist of temporary personnel coming from France and rotating every three to four months. A French Army Light Aviation detachment is also assigned to the 5e RIAOM.

For the record, the 1er REC’s 3rd Squadron served in Djibouti the previous year, in 2023. In the first half of 2024, it was the 4th Company 13e DBLE that was deployed to Djibouti.

With the departure of French troops from Africa between 2023 and 2024, the 5e RIAOM remains the only French operational unit permanently stationed on the continent.

1er REC - Djibouti - 1st Squadron - 2024 — General *Vallette*, commander-in-chief of the French forces in Djibouti, reviews the 1st Squadron 1er REC. Djibouti, November 2024.

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