Bodies covered in sand have been discovered near a military base in Mali that has just been abandoned by the French army. Paris denounces the manipulation of the Russian mercenaries of the Wagner group and supports his statements with a video.
The Malian army announced on Friday that it had discovered a mass grave near the Gossi base in the north of the country, which the French army had returned to it four days ago. A few hours earlier, the French army accused Wagner’s Russian mercenaries of information manipulation after filming Caucasian soldiers burying bodies near the base in question.
In fact, in the drone video of the French army, soldiers can be seen struggling around corpses, which they cover with sand. According to Paris, this is a manipulated sequence to accuse the French of having left a mass grave.
· When was the mass grave discovered?
A video was broadcast on Thursday from the Twitter account of a man named Dia Diarra, who proclaimed himself a “former soldier” and a “Malian patriot”. We see blurred corpses, half buried in the sand, with the comment: “The French left this when they left the base in Gossi (…) we can’t keep quiet about that!”
On Friday, the French army responded, unveiling video captured by a drone in which we can see soldiers surrounding corpses, covering them with sand, identifying them as Wagner Group soldiers. In another sequence, we see two of these soldiers filming the half-buried bodies. It is important to emphasize that this is the first time that the French army has broadcast military drone images in such a short time to counter an information attack.
A few hours later, on Friday, it was the Malian army who came forward on the matter, saying they had discovered bodies near the Gossi base.
“Bodies in a state of advanced putrefaction were discovered in a mass grave not far from the camp formerly occupied by the Barkhane force,” writes the General Staff of the Malian Army in a press release. “The advanced state of decay of the corpses indicates that this mass grave existed long before the surrender. Consequently, responsibility for this act can in no way be attributed to the FAMa,” the Malian Armed Forces press release said.
· Why does France suspect Wagner?
For several weeks, France has been warning of the intervention of the Russian security group Wagner in Mali, whose violence and actions, some of which violate international law, are regularly condemned. France is “seriously concerned” about possible “extortion” being carried out in Mali by Malian soldiers “accompanied by mercenaries” from the private Russian group Wagner, the French foreign ministry said on April 4.
This Tuesday, the French general staff also warned of information attacks on the occasion of the handover of the Gossi base. Colonel Pascal Ianni had stated that a “documented” inventory of the base had been drawn up to protect France from possible accusations. “A few months ago, the French armed forces were accused of involvement in human trafficking (…), arming terrorists and even abuse,” Colonel Ianni recalled.
Regarding the mass grave of Gossi, the French army assures that “the comparison of the photos published on Twitter and the images collected by the specialized sensor shows a direct link between what Wagner’s mercenaries are doing and what is wrongly attributed to the French, manufactures soldiers”. These “demands bear witness to the actions of Wagner’s mercenaries, which have been observed since (his) deployment in the Central African Republic and denounced by many international organizations and NGOs”.
This manipulation of the Wagner group “is strategically perfectly logical, since it is in their repertoire of known actions,” explains François-Bernard Huyghe, research director at Iris (Institute for International and Strategic Relations) on BFMTV. “Private military companies also have their own timing, their own autonomy, sometimes they are not that easy to rule or control, but everyone knows the connections [de Wagner, NDLR] with the Kremlin,” emphasizes Frédéric Charillon, Professor of International Relations.
“If it is proven that it is a manipulation, it is probably a combination of interests of certain Malian actors in Mali to tarnish the image of France,” he explains. He also sees a possible “strategic interest for other powers that want to take the place of France and its influence in this area”.
· What relations between Mali and France?
The general staff of the Malian armies does not incriminate anyone directly in its press release, but tensions between France and Mali have been mounting for months. Westerners, among others, have accused the ruling military junta of using the services of this Russian Wagner group. For his part, Bamako is reminiscent of simple Russian advisers.
France has had a military presence in Mali with the Barkhane troops since 2013 to combat local terrorist groups. But despite tactical victories, the terrain was never really taken over by the Malian state and its armed forces. aggravating factor, Mali’s government was overthrown in a double coup in 2020 and the Malian authorities on the ground castigate the Western military presence on their soil.
In February, Paris therefore decided its military withdrawal from Mali in a deteriorated security context and against the background of tensions between the two countries.
Salomé Vincendon with the AFP journalist BFMTV