In Mali, French army accuses Wagner group of trying to “discredit”

MALI – The French army has filmed what it says Russian mercenaries are While she was burying bodies near the Gossi base in northern Mali, she said in an attempt to accuse the French of leaving a mass grave.

In this video, taken with a drone that AFP had access to on Thursday evening, April 21, and which the French General Staff describes as an “informative attack”, we see Caucasian-type soldiers dealing with corpses they cover with sand.

On the Twitter account, images were posted of a man named Dia Diarra, who calls himself a “former soldier” and a “Malian patriot”. A photo of blurry corpses buried in the sand was posted on this account, with the comment: “This is what the French left behind when they left the base at #Gossi (…) we can’t shut up!”.

Multiple informational attacks

Dia Diarra’s account, created in January 2022, we can note, “is most likely a fake account made by Wagner”, the Russian private military companytreasure the French staff.

“This maneuver to discredit the Barkhane forces appears coordinated. It is representative of the multiple intelligence attacks to which the French army has been subjected over many months.”

The French army also believes that “the comparison of the photos published on Twitter and the images collected by the specialized sensor makes it possible to establish a direct link between what Wagner’s mercenaries are doing and what wrongly attributed to the French soldiers”.

According to her, these “statements testify to the action methods of Wagner’s mercenaries, which have been observed since[his]deployment in the Central African Republic and have been denounced by many international organizations and NGOs”.

A “documented” inventory to protect against accusations

In the context of of his withdrawal from Maliannounced in February that the French army officially handed over the keys to the Gossi base, which housed 300 French soldiers, to the Malian Armed Forces (FAMa) on Tuesday.

Paris concluded its military withdrawal from Mali in February, in a deteriorating security context and against a backdrop of tensions between France and the military junta in power, accused by Westerners of using the services of the Wagner group. Bamako, in turn, calls on simple Russian advisers.

On Tuesday, staff had warned of informational attacks on the occasion of the delivery of the Gossi base. His spokesman, Colonel Pascal Ianni, had indicated that a “documented” inventory of the base had been prepared to protect France from possible accusations. An allusion to anti-French sentiment that has gained ground in the region and has made France the subject of smear campaigns on social networks.

“A few months ago, French troops were accused of participating in human trafficking (…), arming terrorists and even abuse,” recalled Colonel Ianni.

See also on The HuffPost: France announces departure from Mali, but not the Sahel