The body of a French soldier who has been missing since March 3 has been reportedly found by the Sudanese authorities. A Eufor spokesman said that the body discovered by Sudan near the Chadian border might be that of the missing French soldier.

French officials said in a statement that the soldier and another French peacekeeper were in a patrol vehicle which accidentally crossed the border from Chad into Sudan. Although the two peacekeepers identified themselves, the Sudanese forces opened fire. One French soldier collapsed in his vehicle, while the other one was wounded but managed to escape, Voice of America informs.

Eufor spokesman Lt. Col. Patrick Poulain said that they are identifying if the body found by the Sudanese authorities was that of  the missing French soldier.

“The arrangements for the formal identification and recovery of the remains are currently being organised,” Poulain said Wednesday, as cited by Reuters.

The French troops have apologized to the Sudanese authorities over the border incursion, and have requested their help in finding the missing soldier. The French officials said that the special French troops involved in Monday’s incident were on a reconnaissance patrol.

“It's unfortunate this happened now, but one of the goals of this reconnaissance is precisely to check out the terrain, especially the frontier, because the maps are rather imprecise,” he told Reuters by telephone.

The soldier was part of a European Union force in eastern Chad, in charge with the protection of the refugees from Sudan’s Darfur region. The EU has deployed 3,700 soldiers in eastern Chad to protect more than 230,000 Sudanese refugees living in camps.