Draft:1976 Loyada Hostage Rescue Mission: Difference between revisions

 

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== French military preparations ==

== French military preparations ==

All [[French armed forces]] were immediately put on alert as soon as the hostage-taking began. The [[2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment]], commanded by Captain André Soubirou<ref>{{cite web|url=http://2rep.legion-etrangere.com/mdl/info_seul.php?id=112&block=17&titre=ils-ont-commande-le-2eme-rep|title=They commanded the 2nd rep|work=2e REP }}</ref>, leaves Djibouti to deploy near the border post. It was reinforced in the evening by several [[Panhard AML 60]] armored vehicles of the 13th DBLE’s reconnaissance squadron. On the other side of the border, Somali soldiers took up positions behind the barbed wire, advised by agents of the [[Warsaw Pact]]. Night fell without it being possible to guess the intentions of the hostage-takers, beyond their desire to kill the children if their demands were not met.

All [[French armed forces]] were put on alert as soon as the hostage-taking began. The [[2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment]], commanded by Captain André Soubirou<ref>{{cite web|url=http://2rep.legion-etrangere.com/mdl/info_seul.php?id=112&block=17&titre=ils-ont-commande-le-2eme-rep|title=They commanded the 2nd rep|work=2e REP }}</ref>, near the border post. It was reinforced in the evening by several [[Panhard AML 60]] armored vehicles of the 13th DBLE’s reconnaissance squadron. On the other side of the border, Somali soldiers took up positions behind the barbed wire, advised by agents of the [[Warsaw Pact]]. Night fell without it being possible to guess the intentions of the hostage-takers, beyond their desire to kill the children if their demands were not met.

On 4 February 1976, early in the morning, a group of nine [[Sniper|snipers]] from [[National Gendarmerie Intervention Group|GIGN]] led by Lieutenant [[Christian Prouteau]] arrived from mainland France. They were positioned approximately 180 [[meters]] from the bus, in front of the palm grove near the French border post, near the snipers of the 13th DBLE and the 2nd REP already in place. 300 meters from the bus, the company of the 2nd REP remained on standby in the palm grove to the west of the bus, around the post of the autonomous nomadic group. The [[Panhard AML 60]] of the reconnaissance squadron of the 13e DBLE are 500 meters north of the position, where a squadron of [[National Gendarmerie]] was also on standby.

On 4 February 1976, early in the morning, a group of nine [[Sniper|snipers]] from [[National Gendarmerie Intervention Group|GIGN]] led by Lieutenant [[Christian Prouteau]] arrived from mainland France. They were positioned approximately 180 [[meters]] from the bus, in front of the palm grove near the French border post, near the snipers of the 13th DBLE and the 2nd REP already in place. 300 meters from the bus, the company of the 2nd REP remained on standby in the palm grove to the west of the bus, around the post of the autonomous nomadic group. The [[Panhard AML 60]] of the reconnaissance squadron of the 13e DBLE are 500 meters north of the position, where a squadron of [[National Gendarmerie]] was also on standby.

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On 3 February 1976, terrorists from the Front for the Liberation of the Somali Coast (FLCS) took the occupants of a school bus hostage in the border region of the French Territory of the Afars and Issas (modern day Republic of Djibouti). The next day, French Foreign Legion paratroopers stormed the bus with the support of GIGN snipers, killing the kidnappers and freeing most of the hostages.^[1]

In 1896, the rulers of the Issa clan signed treaties with the French government that resulted in their territory becoming a protectorate of the French colonial empire, with the resulting colony officaly becoming French Somaliland that same year.^[2][3]
In 1960, the neighboring protectorate of British Somaliland gained independence from the United Kingdom, and the resulting country known as the Somali Republic subsequently claimed jurisdiction of French Somaliland with the intention of uniting both countries. That same year, Djiboutian politician Mahmoud Harbi founded the Front for the Liberation of the Somali Coast as a nationalist organization to promote Pan-Somalism. However, after France rejected a United Nations recommendation that it should grant French Somaliland independence, the FLSC became a guerrilla group dedicated to fighting to liberate the now re-named French Territory of the Afars and the Issas from French rule.

In 1970, the FLCS launched its first terrorist attack by bombing a bar in Djibouti City, then in 1975 FLCS operatives kidnapped the French ambassador of Somalia in order for him to be exchanged later for two imprisoned FLCS members. In response to the deteriorating security situation, the French government ordered the deployment of a combat company from the 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment on a six month rotational basis to reinforce local military units.

On 31 December 1975, pre-negotiations regarding the independence of the French Territory of the Afars and the Issas were held in Paris. On 20 January 1976, French officials made a formal complaint to the Organization of African Unity against Somalia, asserting that they had a “negative and obstructionist” attitude towards French interests in East Africa. Evidence subsequently came to light that the government of Somalia actively assisted the FLSC by providing arms and ammunition, as well as refuge from French authorities as it launched cross border attacks.^[4]

At 7:15am local time on 3 February 1976, a military bus carrying out school pick-up for 31 children (aged between 5 and 12 years old) of soldiers from the French military air base inside Djibouti City’s Ambouli International Airport was hijacked by four armed FLCS militants disguised as women in the Ambouli district. The terrorists order the driver to take the bus 18 kilometers south east to Loyada, which was the only official border post with Somalia at that time. When driving through a checkpoint on the outskirts of Djibouti City, the hijackers exchanged gunfire with the local gendarmerie, who informed their superiors and then pursued the bus in their vehicles.

The bus arrived in Loyada at 7:45am, where its path into Somalia was blocked by members of the 13th Demi-Brigade of the Foreign Legion manning the border checkpoint. After initial negotiations with French authorities, the bus was then allowed to park in the “no man’s land” between French and Somali territories, only a few dozen meters from the Somali border post at Lawyacado.^[5] The demands of the hostage takers, the refusal of which would result in the execution of the children, were:

• the immediate unconditional release from French custody of all imprisoned FLCS members
• the annulment of the 1967 French Somaliland independence referendum result (that supported remaining a part of the French Republic)
• an end to French colonial rule in the French Territory of the Afars and the Issas

All local French armed forces were put on full alert as soon as the hostage-taking began. The 2nd Foreign Parachute Regiment, commanded by Captain André Soubirou^[6], rapidly deployed near the border post. It was reinforced in the evening by several Panhard AML 60 armored vehicles of the 13th DBLE’s reconnaissance squadron. Operators from GIGN, which was the tier one counterterrorism and hostage rescue unit of the French National Gendarmerie, were also immediately sent from mainland France. On the other side of the border, Somali soldiers took up positions behind the barbed wire, advised by agents of the Warsaw Pact. Night fell without it being possible to guess the intentions of the hostage-takers, beyond their desire to kill the children if their demands were not met.

On 4 February 1976, early in the morning, a group of nine snipers from GIGN led by Lieutenant Christian Prouteau arrived from mainland France. They were positioned approximately 180 meters from the bus, in front of the palm grove near the French border post, near the snipers of the 13th DBLE and the 2nd REP already in place. 300 meters from the bus, the company of the 2nd REP remained on standby in the palm grove to the west of the bus, around the post of the autonomous nomadic group. The Panhard AML 60 of the reconnaissance squadron of the 13e DBLE are 500 meters north of the position, where a squadron of National Gendarmerie was also on standby.

The bus and its passengers are still immobilized at the same location. The hostage-takers are reportedly reinforced by elements from Somalia. Regular Somali soldiers are stationed on both sides of the border post. General Pierre Brasart, commander of the Armed Forces of the French Territory of the Afars and Issas (TFAI), is directing operations from his command post located between the palm grove and the other French military positions.

At 3:45pm, GIGN snipers opened fire and killed five hostage-takers (one of whom was killed by the second shot)^[7], using on this occasion for the first time the “simultaneous shooting” technique developed in 1974^[8]: each sniper indicates in code by radio when he has the opportunity to open fire on the target. When everyone is ready, the order to fire is given by the term. Each shooter then counts three seconds and fires the shot.^[9]

Within ten minutes, the GIGN killed other kidnappers. Somali soldiers stationed on the other side of the border responded with MG42 machine guns positioned in the palm grove. From the border post, other soldiers also fired on the GIGN gendarmes and the legionnaires who rushed towards the bus. A sixth hostage-taker, probably from the Somali border post, managed to enter the bus, seize a child, before being killed by a GIGN gendarme and a legionnaire when they entered the bus. In his fall, the kidnapper allegedly emptied the magazine of his weapon at random and injured several children, including two girls who did not survive.^[10]

According to the children and the driver, the sixth terrorist, who probably came from the border crossing, then walked alongside the bus before shooting towards the rear right corner of the bus. It was this shot that allegedly killed young Nadine Durand and seriously injured the bus driver Jean-Michel Dupont, as well as several other children, including young Valérie Geissbuhler, who died within a week of being repatriated to Paris. However, one theory claims that Nadine Durand was killed by a shot from a French soldier.^[11][12]

At the same time, the 2nd Company of the REP launched an assault while the Panhard AML 60 deployed in line facing the border. The legionnaires were caught under automatic weapons fire from the Somali side, which were quickly neutralized by the Panhard AML 60. The sections of the 2nd Company entered the bus and extracted the children and the two adults, who were taken to safety. At 4:05pm, the action was over.

• Two girls were killed: Nadine Durand, who died at the scene, and Valérie Geissbuhler, who died on 7 February 1976 after being transferred and operated on at the Val-de-Grâce Hospital in Paris
• 5 other children were injured, several seriously, and some will remain disabled for life, like Josiane Rajerison and David Brisson. Having lost his left eye and part of his face due to repeated blows from a hostage taker’s gun butt, he made a first suicide attempt in the mid-1980s and finally committed suicide himself in 2014. He is sometimes considered to be the third victim of Loyada^[13][14]
• A six-year-old boy, Franck Rutkovsky, was taken to Hargeisa in Somalia and was released within a week at the French embassy in Mogadishu, after lengthy negotiations^[15]
• Two non-combatant soldiers, namely bus driver Jean-Michel Dupont and social worker Jehanne Bru, were injured
• Lieutenant Jean-Jacques Doucet, head of the 1st Platoon of the 2nd Company, was seriously wounded in the action;
• Seven hostage-takers were killed;
• The number of Somali soldiers killed in the clash remains unknown. According to the Somali government’s report, 15 Somalis were killed and 14 injured^[16]

In 2019, the victims’ families broke their silence and demanded reparations from the state. Hans Geissbuhler, a 75-year-old former elite helicopter pilot, had long remained silent about the loss of his 7-year-old daughter, Valérie. For 43 years, the victims’ families never met, but after the Bataclan attacks, Paul Vitani, the older brother of two hostages, undertook to reunite them and have them recognized as victims of the attack through an association: “The Forgotten of Loyada.” For Geissbuhler and former hostage Franck Rutkovsky, this initiative is a rare opportunity to receive support because, they say, “The state has abandoned us”, evoking the pain of loss, the traumatized younger daughter, the torn family, and the lack of responses to letters since 1976^[17][18][19].

These true events served as the basis for the screenplay of the 2019 Franco-Belgian film 15 Minutes of War, which presents numerous differences from reality in the narrative, as clarified at the end of the film.^[20][21]

• Bourret, Jean-Claude (1983). G.I.G.N. les exploits des gendarmes anti-terroistes (in French). Évreux: aux éditions France-Empire. ISBN 2 7048 0044 8..
• Coubba, Ali (1998). Ahmed Dini et la politique à Djibouti (in French). Paris: L’Harmattan..
• Philippe Oberlé, Pierre Hugot, Histoire de Djibouti – Des origines à la république, Paris, Dakar, Présence Africaine, 1985, rééd. 1996), 346 p. (en particulier p. 267-269).
• Jean-Luc Riva, Les enfants de Loyada, Nimrod, 2016, 288 p.
• Jean-Luc Calyel, Pascal Pelletier, GIGN la BD, A&H éditions, 2019
• Laurent André, Pascal Pelletier; GIGN la BD Tome 3, A&H éditions, 2021
• Paul Vitani, les oubliés de Loyada, A&H éditions, 2021

• 15 Minutes of War (2019), Franco-Belgian film by Fred Grivois. Inspired by the hostage crisis, although the storyline deviates significantly from official accounts or from the stories told by the main participants
• Les enfants otages de Loyada : la France sous pression – France Télévisions documentary about the crisis