French soldiers take off in a Chadian Air Force helicopter in N'Djamena, February 2008. JEROME DELAY / AP On Thursday, January 30, amidst the usual bustle of boarding and deplaning at N'Djamena ...

France has a large military presence in its former colonies in West Africa A French soldier has been jailed for a year by a court in Paris for molesting girls aged three and five in a hotel ...

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING) UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT #1: (Reading in French). BEARDSLEY: One by one, the kids read out the testimony of one of the many African soldiers who fought and often died ...