Mekachera was to lay a wreath in a short ceremony at the cemetery's main monument, accompanied by British diplomats and officials from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, the French defence ministry said.

The Etaples cemetery, on the northern French coast, contains the graves of around 11,000 British servicemen from World War I.

Unknown vandals painted a swastika and several insults including the words "Dig up your garbage. It is fouling our soil." The graffiti was removed within hours.

SPACE.WIRE