Giant military camp will host 4,500 soldiers in the heart of Paris for the Olympic Games

(AFP) A giant military camp, with prefabricated barracks and sleeping stretchers, is being built around the clock in the east of Paris to house 4,500 soldiers during the Olympic Games.

The camp, located on a large area near the Vincennes forest where circuses or amusement parks are normally set up, must be completed before July 3, when the first soldiers arrive 13 days before the opening ceremony of the games.

It is the largest military camp installed in metropolitan France since World War II.

In total, 18,000 soldiers will participate in the security of the Olympics (July 26 to August 11), as a reinforcement of the 45,000 members of internal security, police and military police. At the private security level, between 18,000 and 22,000 agents will be mobilized per day.

"In 1945, a camp was built in canvas. In 2024, it is a solid construction, with facilities unimaginable 50 years ago: Wi-Fi, air conditioning, a level almost higher than our deployments in foreign operations scenarios," explains the general commissioner, Philippe Pourqué, director of the Army Commissary.

"It is essential to guarantee the soldiers' ability to withstand" during the games, he adds.

The last facilities of this magnitude recently created for French military missions were in Gao, Mali. In the middle of the desert, up to 2,000 men were deployed as part of the anti-jihadist operation, until their withdrawal in 2022.