13e DBLE: 2024 Deployment to Réunion | French Foreign Legion Information

In November 2024, elements of the 13th Foreign Legion Demi-Brigade (13e DBLE) deployed to Réunion. It is an island in the Indian Ocean, located east of Madagascar, and an overseas department of France. The legionnaires will remain there for the next four months.

On Réunion, the 13e DBLE legionnaires have formed the 3rd Infantry Company of the 2nd Marine Infantry Parachute Regiment (2e RPIMa), a French overseas unit stationed on the island. The regiment consists of an HQ, an HQ company, a parachute company (1st), a reservist company (2nd), an infantry company (3rd, comprising elements from mainland France rotating every four months), a supply train company, and a maintenance company. Along with the 5th Foreign Regiment (5e RE, ex-DLEM), the 2e RPIMa is part of France’s Southern Indian Ocean Forces (FAZSOI).

The 2e RPIMa’s mission is maintaining sovereignty and the preservation of French interests in the southern Indian Ocean zone, and a permanent alert mode so as to be ready to take part at very short notice in a military or public assistance operation.

Other missions of the regiment are maintaining sovereignty over the small islands of Juan de Nova and Europa, in the Mozambique Channel, and participating in security or public service missions in the Indian Ocean.

The 2e RPIMa also provides operational and technical training detachments (DIO, DIT) in support of the armed forces of friendly countries in the region, including Africa. In addition, it assists populations during cyclones and major volcanic eruptions.

Currently, the 13e DBLE men take part in the three-week course organized by Réunion’s tropical climate familiarization center (CATR), based at La Saline. The center provides training in all physical environments (ocean, coastline, mountains, tropical zones) for all French Army personnel serving on the island.

Watch the video showing the 13e DBLE elements during the course:

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