Andy Fila, an Operation Barkhane refrigeration engineer, was deadly hit by a gas cylinder explosion in Chad on Friday. He was brigadier-chief (sergeant) and belonged to the 14th Infantry and Parachute Logistic Support Regiment in Toulouse.

A French soldier died in a maintenance accident on Friday, July 31, in Chad, where the anti-jihadist Operation Barkhane is deployed, the French army headquarters announced. Brigadier-chef (sergeant) Andy Fila belonged to the 14th Infantry and Parachute Logistics Support Regiment in Toulouse.

“While performing maintenance work on a refrigeration unit at the Kossei base in N’Djamena, Chad, Brigadier-chef Andy Fila, an electro-mechanical refrigeration technician from the Operation Barkhane, was fatally hit by the explosion” of a gas cylinder, the statement said. He died from his injuries. A military investigation has been opened.

Andy Fila, 25, father of one child, had been serving on several external operations. Already sent to the Sahel in 2016, he returned in June. Yesterday, in the National Assembly, deputies spontaneously paid tribute to this soldier, observing a minute’s silence, while the draft bioethics law was being examined.

Operation Barkhane involves around 5,100 French soldiers. In 2014, it succeeded Operation Serval, launched in Mali in January 2013, throughout the Sahel. 43 French soldiers died in combat in Operations Serval and Barkhane, according to the French Army. This figure does not include accidents.