Jean-François Klobb
Jean-François Klobb | |
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Jean-François Arsène Klobb (1857–1899) was a French colonial officer. He was assassinated by order of Captain Paul Voulet.
Background and early career
Born on June 29, 1857, in
He returned to French Sudan with the rank of major in July 1895, distinguishing himself against the Tuaregs, that he defeated in a series of battles fought in 1897–98, that helped to secure French control on Timbuktu, endangered by the massacre near the city of a platoon of Sipahis in June 1897. [1]
Voulet-Chanoine Mission
Promoted to
Klobb followed the trail left by the "infernal column's" passage: a trail of burned villages and charred corpses. He passed trees where women had been hanged, and cooking fires where children had been roasted. He also found the corpses of the expedition's guides—those that had displeased Voulet had been strung up alive in a position where the foot went to the hyenas and the rest of the body to the vultures.
On July 10, after a pursuit of over 2000 kilometers, Klobb arrived at Damangara, near Zinder, where the villagers informed him that Voulet and his men were just a few hours' march ahead. He sent an African sergeant with two soldiers to give Voulet a letter in which he informed him that he had been removed from his position and was to return home immediately, to which Voulet replied that he had 600 guns against his fifty, and would use them if Klobb dared to come near.
Death
Klobb did not believe the other officers or the riflemen would dare to kill, or let be killed, a superior officer; he didn't know that Voulet and Chanoine had kept the orders from Paris secret, and that they had made sure that the other officers were not present. Consequently, on July 14 Klobb proceeded with his men to Dankori, where Voulet waited. Klobb, after telling his men not to open fire under any circumstances, in full dress uniform and with his
References
- (in French) Arsène Klobb, Dernier carnet de route : au Soudan français ; rapport officiel de M. le gouverneur Bergès sur la fin de la mission Klobb, E. Flammarion, Paris, 1905.
- (in French) Arsène Klobb, Octave Meynier (préf. Albert Maitrot de La Motte-Capron, prés. Chantal Ahounou), À la recherche de Voulet : sur les traces sanglantes de la Mission Afrique centrale, 1898-1899, Cosmopole, Paris, 2001, nouv. éd. (1re éd. 1931), 229 p.