3e REI: A legionnaire died, another 5 legionnaires seriously injured

On Friday, August 10, 2018, a traffic accident occurred in French Guiana, South America. While returning from a military exercise, a truck from 3rd Foreign Infantry Regiment (3e REI) left the road and plunged into a small ravine. A long-serving legionnaire was killed, and 13 other legionnaires were injured.

The accident took place on National Road 2 (also known as the Eastern Road), the well-known cross-jungle route built by the 3e REI between the 1970s and the 1990s. Dozens of legionnaires died during that construction. The crash occurred near Régina at around 2:00 p.m. (14:00). According to local firefighters, the military truck – carrying 14 legionnaires and heading toward Kourou, the garrison town of the 3e REI – attempted to avoid a collision with a civilian 4×4 vehicle and went off the road into a ravine.

Senior Corporal Ibrahima Camara died at the scene. Five legionnaires were seriously injured, and eight sustained minor injuries. The wounded were airlifted by helicopter to the hospital in Cayenne, the capital of French Guiana.

Senior Corporal Camara was married and the father of four. Born in Guinea in West Africa, he joined the Foreign Legion in 2009. (He appears to have been the driver, but this has not been confirmed.)

3e REI: Caporal-chef Ibrahima Camara — Then-Corporal ***Ibrahima Camara*** when serving with the *4th Foreign Regiment* (4e RE). Senior Corporal, he died in French Guiana on August 10, 2018.

Eighteen years earlier, in mid-August 2000, a truck from the 4th Foreign Regiment (the 4e RE) was returning from a farm to the barracks in Castelnaudary when it left the road and struck a tree. Five legionnaires were killed.

In September 2013, another traffic accident occurred near Castelnaudary, injuring an officer and 18 legionnaires.

In November 2017, two legionnaires were killed in a road accident in Djibouti.

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