4 die as French army-chartered plane crashes off I.Coast

Abidjan, Oct 14 (AFP) Four Moldovan nationals were killedtoday when a transport plane chartered by the French armycrashed off Ivory Coast, firefigh...
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Abidjan, Oct 14 (AFP) Four Moldovan nationals were killedtoday when a transport plane chartered by the French armycrashed off Ivory Coast, firefighters said.

Another six people were injured in the crash of theAntonov aircraft which had 10 people on board, firefighterColonel Issa Sakho told local television.

Four French nationals were among the injured, a Frenchmilitary source said, indicating that the plane had beenchartered as part of the anti-jihadist Operation Barkhane.

"There were 10 people on board, Moldovans and Frenchpeople. The four victims who died are Moldovan nationals,"Sakho said.

The plane had taken off from Ouagadougou in Burkina Fasoand crash-landed in the sea near Abidjan, breaking in half, heexplained.

Local forces were hoping to secure the wreck before itdrifted away "so investigators can do their job", he said.

A French military source said the Antonov was charteredas part of Barkhane, under which France maintains a 4,000-manmission in the region.

The operation aims to shore up fragile Sahel countriesagainst jihadists who have carried out a wave of bloodybombings, shootings and kidnappings.

The French military base in Abidjan provides logisticalsupport for the operation which is headquartered in N'Djamena,the capital of Chad. French special forces are stationed inOuagadougou.

Every year, around 100 sorties are flown out of Abidjanairport as part of Barkhane, often by former Soviet armypilots in Ukrainian-made Antonovs.

The planes frequently carry French military personnel andsub-contractors accompanying their cargo.

There was a heavy storm over Abidjan early today, but itwas unclear whether the heavy weather was the cause of theaccident.

France keeps around 950 military personnel in Ivory Coastas part of the FFCI force based in the biggest French armybase on Africa's Atlantic coast. Other bases are inLibreville, Gabon and Dakar, Senegal.

One of their key missions is to extract French or otherwestern civilians in case of trouble in Ivory Coast orneighbouring countries.

Abidjan is strategically well-placed in the region asmost French-speaking African countries can be reached by airin under three hours. (AFP)NSA.

This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.

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