A French military medic shot and killed on Tuesday (September 6th) a Chadian soldier he was treating and who assaulted him with a scalpel at a French forces base in Faya Largeau, in northern Chad, a local governor announced in Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“A Chadian soldier, who was not in a normal condition, went for a dressing in the military base of the French army, took a scalpel and injured a French military nurse,” explained to the AFP by telephone General Ali Maïde Kebir, governor of the Borkou region, of which Faya Largeau is the capital.
“The medic fired his gun and killed him,” he continued. “After learning of the death of the Chadian soldier, the population of Faya demonstrated all day in front of the entrance to the base, tried to enter but without success and the crowd dispersed at nightfall” , added the governor, who refers to the attack on the nurse as an “isolated act”.
“During a medical consultation for the populations, a Chadian soldier who was consulting attacked a French nurse with a scalpel, who had to use his weapon,” confirmed, on condition of anonymity, an official of the French forces at Sahel, who are based in N’Djamena but have a small base in Faya Largeau which houses forty soldiers.
“We do not know the reasons for the attack. The nurse received three scalpel blows to the chest, head and neck, but his condition is stabilized, “continued this source, which assures that the nurse had” had to defend himself “. A joint investigation by the Chadian and French armies is underway to determine the circumstances of the “incident”, General Maïde Kebir concluded. This French garrison has been present in Faya Largeau for forty years, said the French military source.