Tributes have been paid to two French special forces commandos who died in an operation that freed four hostages being held by kidnappers in northern Burkina Faso.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, who personally authorised the rescue mission, said special operations officers Cédric de Pierrepont and Alain Bertoncello, would be honoured at a national ceremony at Les Invalides in Paris on Tuesday.

Macron said he “bowed with emotion and gravity before the sacrifice of our two soldiers, who gave their lives to save those of our fellow citizens”.

Florence Parly, the French armed forces minister, tweeted: “The sacrificed their lives to save those of four hostages, now freed. My thoughts are with their families and their brothers-in-arms. The entire Nation bows to their courage.”

In a tribute to their son, Bertoncello’s parents, Jean-Luc and Danièle, said they were proud of him despite their grief. “As soon as he left high school, he wanted to join the navy. That was his choice,” Jean-Luc Bertoncello told RTL radio.

“What he loved was the esprit de corps … he was doing what he wanted and he always told us not to worry … he was well prepared. They did what they had to do. For him it ended badly, for the others, it was a successful mission.”

A statement from the Élysée Palace said the men, both decorated special forces soldiers and part of Task Force Sabre, a unit based in Burkina Faso, were killed in action during a “complicated” operation that was a race against time to rescue the hostages.

At a news conference on Friday, Gen François Lecointre, the French armed forces chief of staff, said the hostages were on their way to being transferred to an Islamist militant group in neighbouring Mali when they were rescued. He said it would have been “absolutely impossible” to carry out a raid once they had been handed over.

Emmanuel Macron (R) walks with freed French hostage Laurent Lassimouillas (L). Photograph: EPA

Four of the kidnappers were also killed during the operation, while two were reported to have escaped. It is not known who abducted the four hostages, two French tourists, an American and a South Korean, but terrorist groups linked to Islamic State and al-Qaida operate in the region.

Frenchmen Patrick Picque and Laurent Lassimouillas disappeared while visiting the Pendjari national park in Benin on 1 May. Their car was found burned out along with the mutilated body of their Benin guide Fiacre Gbédji in the park, which is on the border with Burkina Faso.

They flew back to France, along with the South Korean former hostage, on Saturday and were met by Macron at Villacoublay airport near Paris.

In a statement read to waiting journalists, Lassimouillas said the former hostages sent their “sincere condolences” to the family and friends of the two soldiers who “sacrificed” their lives.

He admitted he and Picque should have “taken into account” official advice not to visit the region where they were on holiday and “avoided going to that magnificent region of the world that has unhappily tipped into instability”. He also denounced the “cowardly killing” of the men’s Benin guide.

Before leaving, Lassimouillas said: “All our thoughts go out to the families of the soldiers and to the soldiers who lost their lives to free us from this hell.”

Parly said finding the two other hostages, whose identities have not been released but who are reported to be women, was a surprise. “We were not aware of their presence nor were the governments of South Korea or the United States.”

She added the message to terrorist and criminal kidnappers was clear. “Those who attack France and the French know we will spare no effort to track them down, to find them and to neutralise them. We never abandon our fellow citizens,” Parly said.

American and French military intelligence had tracked the group holding the hostages.

“France has lost two of its sons, we lose two of our brothers,” Gen Lecointre said.