Togo on Sunday held a funeral with full military honours for the son of the chief of staff of its armed forces, who died of exposure during a military training exercise in the French Alps last week.The coffin of 23-year-old Kondi Abdallah Nandja was laid in a huge hangar at Lome airport's military base, covered with the national flag, for the ceremony.
Hundreds of mourners paid their last respects, including the defence and interior ministers, Togolese and French officers, Nanja's father Zakari and fellow cadets from France's elite Saint Cyr military college.
Nandja and a soldier from Niger were reported dead from exposure on January 13. They were on a three-week mountain warfare course near the town of Barcelonnette, in the southern Alps.
Seven of their colleagues from Saint Cyr were found suffering from hypothermia, two seriously. They included three African men -- from Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Niger -- and two women.
On Saturday French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie posthumously awarded the two dead cadets the Legion of Honour, France's highest civilian award.
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