# The French raid on Bulo Marer, January 2013

> The French DGSE raid on Bulo Marer on 12 January 2013 to free the hostage Denis Allex: the kidnapping, the raid, the dead, US support, al-Shabaab's claims and the Somali government's reaction.

Source page: https://calankii.com/en/history/bulo-marer-raid-2013/
Last checked: 2026-11-12
Publisher: Calankii (https://calankii.com)

## In short

Bulo Marer (Buulo Mareer) is a town in [Lower Shabelle](/en/regions/lower-shabelle/) that was held by [al-Shabaab](/en/history/al-shabaab/) in 2013. This page records the French attempt to rescue a hostage there, as the sources report it. Other foreign forces are covered in [Foreign forces in Somalia](/en/institutions/foreign-forces-in-somalia/).

## The kidnapping, 2009

Denis Allex and a colleague, Marc Aubrière, both French agents, were kidnapped by al-Shabaab in Mogadishu in July 2009. Aubrière escaped a month later ([Al Jazeera, 13 January 2013](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2013/1/13/france-confirms-failed-somali-hostage-rescue)).

## The raid, 12 January 2013

France's DGSE intelligence service launched the raid with helicopters. Ahmed [Omar Mohamed](/en/people/omar-abdullahi-mohamed/), a regional official in [Lower Shabelle](/en/infrastructure/k50-airstrip/), said: "Helicopters attacked al-Shabaab at 2.00am local time this morning." Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said: "All indications are (that Allex was) killed by his captors," and blamed the "intransigence of the terrorists". President François Hollande said the operation "confirms France's determination not to give in to the blackmail of terrorists." Al-Shabaab said Allex was alive and far from the fighting, that it held a wounded French soldier, and that French helicopters had bombed indiscriminately (Al Jazeera, 2013).

Wikipedia records that about 50 DGSE commandos took part; that US surveillance flights from Djibouti had helped locate Allex; and that President Barack Obama told Congress that US aircraft entered Somali airspace in limited support of the raid but did not use weapons ([Wikipedia, Bulo Marer hostage rescue attempt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulo_Marer_hostage_rescue_attempt)). See [Naval missions off Somalia](/en/institutions/naval-missions-off-somalia/) for Camp Lemonnier.

## Allex's death and the reactions

On 16 January 2013 al-Shabaab announced that it had "reached a unanimous decision" to execute Allex and that he had been executed, saying France had "voluntarily signed Allex's death warrant" by attempting the rescue. French officials maintained that he had been killed during the raid ([Bill Roggio, *Long War Journal*, January 2013](https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2013/01/shabaab_executes_fre.php)). On 13 January the federal government condemned the operation as unilateral, carried out without the knowledge or consent of the Somali authorities (Wikipedia).

## Sources differ

- **French dead.** Le Drian first spoke of two soldiers killed; Al Jazeera reported one killed and one missing the next day; Wikipedia records two killed and a third believed killed.
- **Civilian dead.** Two, according to a Somali official; more than 10, according to al-Shabaab's spokesman Ali Mahmoud Rage (Al Jazeera); at least eight in Wikipedia's count. Wikipedia also reports an account from a DGSE officer, and a larger claim by the journalist Vincent Nouzille, that commandos killed civilians during the approach.
- **Al-Shabaab dead.** About 17 (Al Jazeera).
- **When Allex died.** During the raid (France); after it (al-Shabaab).

## Read the primary sources yourself

- Al Jazeera, "France confirms failed Somali hostage rescue" (2013): [article](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2013/1/13/france-confirms-failed-somali-hostage-rescue).
- Bill Roggio, "Shabaab executes French hostage Denis Allex", *Long War Journal* (2013): [article](https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2013/01/shabaab_executes_fre.php).

---
I want to help with this: email hello@calankii.com. Fix this page: email hello@calankii.com with the page link and your source.