Three hostages freed by French commandos from militants in Burkina Faso have arrived in Paris, expressing sorrow at the death of two French soldiers in the rescue operation.
President Emmanuel Macron welcomed the hostages as they stepped off the French government jet on Saturday, less than 48 hours after French special forces stormed their captors' hideout in a daring night-time raid.
Two Frenchmen kidnapped while on safari in Benin more than a week earlier, as well as an American woman and a South Korean woman who were being held with them, were liberated in the high-risk mission authorised by Macron.
Dignitaries arrive to greet hostages. Source: ABACA
The American, who has not been identified, was being repatriated separately.
"All our thoughts go to the families of the soldiers and to the soldiers who lost their lives to free us from this hell," Laurent Lassimouillas earlier told reporters as he met Burkinabe President Roch Kabore in Ouagadougou.
The French government identified the two soldiers killed as Cedric de Pierrepont and Alain Bertoncello.
Macron will lead a national tribute to the men, both officers in the naval special forces, at the Les Invalides military hospital and mausoleum in Paris on Tuesday.
Lassimouillas also expressed regret over the death of the Beninese park guide, who was shot dead when the two tourists were kidnapped.
The hostages arrived at Villacoublay airport, near Paris, France. Source: ABACA
French officials said on Friday it was not yet clear who had kidnapped the tourists in Benin but that their captors planned to hand them over to an al-Qaeda affiliate in neighbouring Mali.
Jihadist groups with links to al-Qaeda and Islamic State have expanded their presence across west Africa's Sahel region, a strip of scrubland beneath the Sahara desert, in recent years and taken a number of Western hostages.
France, the former colonial power in the region, intervened in Mali in 2013 to halt an advance by Islamist militants and has kept about 4500 troops in the Sahel since then.
Defence Minister Florence Parly said the message to terrorists was clear.
"Those who want to attack France, the French, should know that we will hunt them, we will find them, and we will kill them," Parly said after joining Macron at the Villacoublay military airport outside Paris.
Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said France was doing all it could to secure the release of another French hostage, Sophie Petronin, who was kidnapped by gunmen in December 2016 in the northern Malian city of Gao.
SOURCE AAP
Tourists were in Benin 'red zone'
The two French tourists rescued from their kidnappers in Burkina Faso this week were seized in an area of Benin that France has long advised travellers to avoid, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Saturday.
"The zone where our two citizens were has for some time now been considered a red zone, which means it's a zone where you shouldn't go, where you're taking significant risks if you do go," Mr Le Drian told Europe 1 radio.
Two French soldiers, Cedric de Pierrepont (L) and Alain Bertoncello (R), were killed during the rescue operation. Source: AAP
The foreign ministry's travel advisory website lists the areas of northern Benin near the border with Burkina Faso as "Formally Discouraged," including Pendjari National Park.
It warns of "the presence of armed terrorist groups and the risk of kidnapping."
The French tourists, Patrick Picque, 51, and Laurent Lassimouillas, 46, disappeared during a tour of Pendjari on 1 May.
The disfigured body of their guide was found shortly after they were reported missing, along with their abandoned Toyota truck.
Intelligence agencies tracked their captors across the semi-desert terrain of eastern Burkina Faso, where it appeared they would soon cross the border into Mali.
Officials feared the hostages would be handed over to the Macina Liberation Front (FLM), a jihadist group formed in 2015 that is aligned with Al-Qaeda in the region.
French President Emmanuel Macron gave the order for the nighttime raid on Thursday on the militants' camp, in which Mr Picque and Mr Lassimouillas were freed, along with an American woman and a South Korean woman.
French President Emmanuel Macron. Source: Getty
The French commandos were unaware of the presence of the two other hostages, officials said.
Four of the six kidnappers were killed, but two French soldiers also died in the raid.
Mr Picque and Mr Lassimouillas, along with the South Korean hostage who has not yet been identified, arrived in Ouagadougou on Saturday, where they were to meet with Burkina's President Roch Marc Christian Kabore, according to an AFP reporter at the presidential palace.
"Our thoughts go out to the families of the soldiers, and to the soldiers who lost their lives in freeing us from this hell," Lassimouillas said in a brief statement.
He and Mr Picque are to return to Paris later Saturday, where President Macron and Mr Le Drian are to meet them at the Villacoublay military airport southwest of the capital.
'Avoid the sacrifices'
Although Benin has long been spared the unrest seen in Mali and Burkina Faso, French officials have warned that jihadist insurgents could extend their operations into the sparsely populated desert regions further south.
"The threat is evolving and has become much more mobile, and now countries to the south of Mali have become targets," Le Drian said on Saturday.
"The greatest precautions must be taken in these regions to avoid these types of kidnappings, and avoid the sacrifices required by our soldiers," he said.
France's Operation Barkhane counts some 4500 troops deployed in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad to help local forces battle jihadist groups.
The raid on the kidnappers was led by the elite Hubert commando unit of the French naval special forces, which was deployed to the Sahel at the end of March.
They were assisted by Burkina and Benin authorities and by the United States, which provided intelligence and support.
A total of 24 French soldiers have died in the region since 2013 when France intervened to drive back jihadist groups who had taken control of northern Mali.
