DÉFENSE ZONE
In this new portfolio from our magazine, Défense Zone gave free rein to the renowned French photographer Édouard Élias.
After Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, this renowned photojournalist spent several weeks with a unit of the French Foreign Legion in the Central African Republic: the 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment. An opportunity to share the daily life of the green berets on patrol, of course, but also in the more intimate moments of everyday life on an overseas operation. Text and photos: Édouard Élias
Operation Sangaris
“2014. France deployed 1,200 soldiers to the Central African Republic as part of Operation Sangaris, named after a small red butterfly common in the country. A semantic lightness that contrasts with the terrible civil war which, since President François Bozizé was overthrown in March 2013, has pitted the Séléka rebels, a mainly Muslim coalition, against the Christian anti-balaka, literally the “anti-Kalashnikov (AK-47) bullets”...
...I was granted three weeks of total immersion, which allowed me to produce this report. Here, I will not explain the Central African conflict to you, nor its political or strategic stakes. I focused on the soldiers’ lives, their expectations, their isolation, their fears. This story is that of just twenty men, of all nationalities, who chose to fight under the French flag. Here is what they saw and felt in the Central African Republic.”
Portfolio
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Défense Zone presents its new book devoted to the French Foreign Legion. A 176-page photo book devoted to the green berets, from their first steps in Castelnaudary to the many overseas operations in which they take part. You can order the book by following this link.
