The French army has droned what it claims are Russian “mercenaries” burying bodies near the Gossi base in northern Mali. According to her, this maneuver would aim to accuse the French of leaving a mass grave. In this video, which the French General Staff describes as an “informative attack” and which the AFP was able to access, we can see white soldiers dealing with corpses they cover with sand.
At the same time, a man named Dia Diarra, who calls himself a “former soldier” and a “Malian patriot”, posted images of this alleged mass grave to his Twitter account, including a photo of blurry corpses buried in the sand, followed by a video clip. The first message had the comment: “This is what the French left behind when they left the base at Gossi (…) we can’t shut up about that!” According to the French General Staff, the Dia Diarra account is “most likely a fake account created by Wagner”, the Russian private military company.
A maneuver to discredit the Barkhane power?
“This maneuver to discredit the Barkhane power seems coordinated. It is representative of the multiple information attacks to which the French soldiers have been subjected over many months,” states the French army, which also considers that “the comparison of the photos published on Twitter and the images provided by the specialized sensor, making it possible to establish a direct link between what Wagner’s mercenaries are doing and what is wrongly attributed to the French army.”
Still, according to the French army, these “statements testify to the way Wagner’s mercenaries, who have been observed since[his]deployment in the Central African Republic and have been denounced by numerous international organizations and NGOs” , performance. As part of its withdrawal from Mali announced in February, the French army officially handed over the keys to the Gossi base to the Malian Armed Forces (FAMa) on Tuesdaywhich housed 300 French soldiers.
the French military withdrawal from Mali It was decided against the background 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.
General Staff spokesman Colonel Pascal Ianni had indicated that a “documented” inventory of the base had been prepared to protect France from possible accusations. “A few months ago, the French troops were accused of taking part in human trafficking (…), of arming terrorists and even of abuse,” Colonel Ianni recalled.
