Page "French Foreign Legion" Paragraph 49

The Foreign Legion now had a new role as a rapid intervention force to preserve French interests not only in its former African colonies but in other nations as well ; it was also a return to its roots of being a unit always ready to be sent to hot-spots all around the world.

Some notable operations include: the Chadian – Libyan conflict in 1969 – 72 ( the first time that the Foreign Legion was sent in operations after the Algerian War ), 1978 – 79, and 1983 – 87 ; Kolwezi in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo in May 1978 ; Rwanda in 1990 – 94 ; and the Côte d ' Ivoire ( the Ivory Coast ) in 2002 to the present.