No, these French soldiers weren't arrested in Chad

Two photos, purporting to show Chadian soldiers arresting French soldiers on suspicion of terrorism, have been circulating on X since November 11. Many of the posts have come from accounts that support the governments of the Alliance of Sahel States, made up of neighbouring Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, all of whom have cut ties with the French military.  

The photos show two French soldiers in uniform, standing or on their knees, with their hands behind their heads, under the surveillance of three armed soldiers from the Chadian Army.

The accounts that have been circulating these photos claim that they show “French legionnaires” (soldiers who serving with the French Foreign Legion, a part of the French army made up of foreign nationals) who were arrested by the Chadian army for “training terrorists". One of the X accounts that made these claims is an English-language account called African Hub. Its post from November 12 has since garnered more than 250,000 views.

Since late October, the Chadian army has been carrying out Operation Haskanite against Boko Haram. The terrorist group killed around 40 Chadian soldiers during an attack on an army base on October 27, 2024.

A military exercise for French and Chadian armed forces 

However, these photos don’t show the Chadian army arresting French soldiers. They actually show a joint military exercise conducted by the two armies. 

When contacted by our team on November 13, the French army confirmed the authenticity of the photos. However, they said that they had been taken during a “training for Chadian soldiers carried out by French forces in Chad in late October 2024, at the Kosseï Air Force base in N’Djamena".

The French army added that, during this training focused on “operational search techniques", these French soldiers “played the role of suspects so as to allow the Chadian soldiers to put their theoretical training to the test". 

When asked about the origin of the photos that had been circulating online, the French army said that they had been taken by “Chadian soldiers for personal use".

The soldier who took these photos confirmed to fact-checking unit of French media outlet TF1 that they were indeed taken during this training exercise. On November 10, a day before the photos started circulating online with misleading captions, they actually appeared on a Chadian Facebook page called Tchad Halou. In this post, they were properly identified as having been taken during a training exercise. 

The administrator of Tchad Halou told TF1 that the photos came from a video shared on TikTok by a Chadian soldier several days prior. Although the video has since been deleted, the page’s administrator was able to send a screenshot to the TF1 news team. 

Our team also reached out to this Facebook page but has not yet received a response.

Photos of the same event 

There are also other clues that these photos were taken during a training exercise. As noted by several observers online, the weapons visible aren’t loaded, which would make them useless in actual combat. 

The French army sent our team two photos that they said were taken during the same training exercise, which provide additional context for the photos taken by the Chadian soldier.

In the background of these photos, you can see the same red and yellow building shown in the photos that circulated online. It also looks like a continuation of the same simulation of a search and arrest but now the two French soldiers are on the ground, being examined by the Chadian soldiers. 

It is difficult to establish with certainty that the same two French soldiers (outlined in green) appear in the photos provided by the French army and the photos taken by the Chadian soldier. However, we can see that the searches seem to be taking place in a relaxed atmosphere, which is very different from a real arrest. In these photos, several French soldiers seem to be chatting with one another and some of the Chadian soldiers. 

Fake news pushed by accounts supporting the Alliance of Sahel States 

In 2014, the French army moved into the Sahel region as part of a counterinsurgency operation called Operation Barkhane. It was headquartered in Chad but was led in cooperation with its neighbours Mali, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Niger. 

However, in recent years, the French army has been pushed out of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger. In fact, the only country in the region that still collaborates with France militarily is Chad. In early August, the French army announced an operational military partnership with the Chadian army. 

A similar fake news story circulated back in March 2023 when the French Ministry of Defence published photos of French soldiers training with a Chadian unit in the town of Abéché. In the past few days, some accounts wrongly claimed that the recent photos of the two French soldiers being “arrested” were actually taken back then. 

While a thousand French soldiers are currently deployed in Chad, the numbers could dwindle to a third of that in the coming months, as the French news agency AFP reported last June. This gradual withdrawal is partly due to tensions arising from the French presence in the country, as the military juntas governing neighbouring Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso have severed all ties with France.

Supporters of these countries, and of the Alliance of Sahel States, regularly criticise France’s continued military presence in the Sahel and in Africa more widely. Most of the accounts that shared the fake news story about the Chadian army arresting French soldiers were supporters of the Alliance. 

"You will understand the vision of Captain Ibrahim Traoré [president of Burkina Faso], of Goita Assimi [president of Mali] and of [Abdourahamane] Tiani [president of Niger]," the X account Lionne de l'AES (the French acronym for the Alliance) wrote in a post viewed 100,000 times. "Only idiots with their eyes closed don’t understand French politics.”

The English-language account Sahel Revolutionary Soldier, for its part, said in a post that France is trying to "destabilise Africa".

In general, there is a lot of fake and misleading information that circulates online about France’s continued presence in Africa. This disinformation is also pushed by pro-Russian networks. In late October, for example, pro-Russian accounts promoted a fake news story that France was stealing and trafficking men’s penises from the Central African Republic.