Johannesburg — Two African student soldiers from the prestigious Saint Cyr military school in France died of exposure overnight on Tuesday, after a snowstorm during a training exercise in the Alps. Several others were treated for hypothermia.
The two victims, who froze to death, were from Togo and Niger. They were among a group of about 90 officer cadets taking part in what the French defence ministry called a routine three-week high-mountain-warfare training course in the Southern Alps, close to the Italian border.
Togolese and French officials said one of the soldiers who died was the son of Zakari Nandja, the chief of staff of the Togolese armed forces. Three of the injured were also African, from Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Niger. Two women cadets were among the injured.
A violent snowstorm surprised one lot of the trainee officers who had been divided into three groups and prevented them from reaching a mountain pass to get to their barracks. So they dug in the snow.
"Initially weather conditions were difficult but not abnormal. But they deteriorated and one of three groups taking part in the exercise bivouacked in a makeshift shelter," French defence ministry spokesman Colonel Michel Luc said.
"When checks were made in the night, it was found that two foreign trainees from Africa had died. The alert was raised and the emergency services were sent to the scene overland - the weather conditions preventing any other means of access," Luc added.
The survivors were evacuated from the Ubaye Valley, where the two men succumbed to exposure. The dead men were both 2nd lieutenants in their third and final year at Saint Cyr.
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French defence minister, Michele Alliot-Marie, offered her sympathies to the families of the two dead men, saying all their armies were in mourning. "I am deeply affected by this bereavement, which reminds us of how difficult the job of a soldier, and the apprenticeship, is. I share the pain of their families and their loved ones, to whom I send my condolences."
The defence ministry announced that a memorial ceremony would be held for the two 2nd lieutenants at the Invalides in Paris on Saturday, 17 January.
The authorities said a judicial enquiry into the deaths had been ordered. Mountain-warfare training is reported to be a standard feature of the course, said the ministry, which added that there had been no similar accidents recorded.
Based in the town of Coetquidan in Brittany, Saint-Cyr is an elite military academy with an annual intake of about 200. The defence ministry said that between 15 and 20 were recruits usually from abroad. Saint Cyr is the French equivalent of Sandhurst in Britain and West Point in the United States, all of which have trained African officers many of whom have been promoted to the military hierarchy in their respective countries.
