GEORGETOWN, Dec 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Five Guyanese soldiers died this week when their helicopter crashed near Venezuela, President Irfaan Ali said as the neighbors faced off in a fast-escalating border dispute.
Writing on Instagram, Ali said Guyana had lost “some of our best men in uniform” when the helicopter went down on Wednesday. An official said earlier that there was nothing to suggest Venezuelan involvement in the crash.
The military helicopter had vanished Wednesday about 48 kilometers east of the Venezuelan border during bad weather while transporting officers carrying out a routine inspection of troops in the forested area. Searchers found the wreckage Thursday.
“My heart pains and drowns in sorrow at the tragic (loss) of some of our finest men in uniform,” President Irfaan Ali said in a statement posted on social media, calling the loss “immeasurable.”
Ali identified those who died as a retired brigadier general, a colonel and two lieutenant colonels. The two survivors include the co-pilot, and their conditions weren’t immediately known.
