The lifeless body of the French soldier who disappeared on Sunday, during a night operation to fight against illegal gold panning on the Oyapock river, in Guyana, was found on Wednesday, we learned from concordant sources. “The body has been found, that’s the main thing, we will be able to give him a funeral,” Laurent Yawalou, mayor of Camopi, in eastern Guyana, from where the soldier was told AFP. native.
According to a source familiar with the matter, the body of the boatman, a member of the Armed Forces of Guyana (FAG), was found at 1:45 p.m. French time by a FAG patrol in the Oyapock River, near Camopi. Questioned by AFP, the Ministry of the Armed Forces refused for the time being to confirm this information.
The boat hit a tree
The facts occurred on Sunday around 9 p.m. local time. “Acting in support of the gendarmerie, the non-commissioned officer, boatman in the 3rd Foreign Infantry Regiment (REI), customary chief for the Teko Amerindians of Camopi and member of the Grand Customary Council, was looking for a canoe illegal logistics at the time of the accident, “said the Ministry of the Armed Forces earlier in the morning in a press release.
According to the first elements of the investigation, “the boat hit a tree while operating at night in unfavorable weather. In shock, the boatman fell. A mobile policeman was also injured.
A gendarme killed at the end of March
In 2021, according to a parliamentary report, the Guyana gendarmerie estimated the number of illegal gold miners at around 8,600, mainly Brazilian “garimpeiros” (prospectors), “in an irregular situation on French territory”. Some 500 illegal gold mining sites are still active, according to the Observatory of Mining Activity (OAM), including 150 located in the heart of the Amazon National Park, created in 2007 to protect the Amazon rainforest and its biodiversity.
On March 25, a French gendarme, GIGN Major Arnaud Blanc, was killed while participating with nine comrades in an operation against illegal gold panning. A man suspected of belonging to a group of clandestine goldmine robbers involved in the death of this gendarme was subsequently arrested.