Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has expressed condolences in a latter sent to French President Emmanuel Macron after 13 French troops were killed in a midair collision between two helicopters in Mali on Monday, November 25.

Pashinyan offered condolences on behalf of Armenians and said the nation shares the pain of families and friends of those killed in the crash.

Thirty-eight French soldiers have been killed in Mali since France launched a military intervention in 2013. The former colonial power in the region, France sent troops after armed Islamists revolted in northern Mali in 2012 and captured the Mali city of Timbuktu, threatening to advance into the center of the country. France’s operation in the Sahel is now its largest overseas military mission.