A soldier standing less than a meter away from Emmanuel Macron fainted as a group onstage sang the French anthem “La Marseillaise” after the presidents speech for the troops stationed in Chad.
The scene was captured by a live feed on Macrons official Twitter account that broadcast his address to the French military located in NDjamena, the capital of the central African country, where they lead a counter- terrorism operation for more than four years.
The presidents speech, which lasted for more than twenty minutes, was followed by singing of the anthem. As the final lines of La Marseillaise were uttered a soldier in the front row tumbled forward. His companions rushed to pick him up as the man seemed unconscious. Macron at first seemed stunned and then joined the crowd gathering around the soldier.
Macron, following a month of Yellow Vest protests over his economic policies, was spending the Christmas weekend and Eve in Chad where France has its headquarters for Operation Barkhane.
The more than 4,500 troops have been tasked with fighting terrorists in Sahel since 2014. Last year, Macron visited troops in Niger during his holidays.
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