The French army has allegedly used a drone to film Russian “mercenaries” burying bodies near the Gossi base in northern Mali. According to her, this maneuver aims to accuse the French of having left a mass grave. In this video, which the French General Staff has dubbed an “information attack” and to which the AFP had access, we see Caucasian soldiers thrashing around corpses that they cover with sand.
At the same time, a man named Dia Diarra, who describes himself as a “former soldier” and “Malian patriot,” posted images of this supposed mass grave on his Twitter account, including a photo of blurred bodies buried in the sand, followed by a video. The first post had the comment: “This is what the French left behind when they left the base in Gossi (…) we can’t keep quiet about that!” “. According to the French General Staff, Dia Diarra’s account “is most likely a fake account created by Wagner,” the Russian private military company.
A maneuver to discredit Barkhane forces?
“This maneuver to discredit Barkhane forces appears to be coordinated. It is representative of the numerous information attacks that the French soldiers have been subjected to for many months,” states the French army, which also believes that “the comparison of the photos published on Twitter and the images collected by the specialized sensor allows to a direct link between what Wagner’s mercenaries are doing and what is wrongly attributed to the French military”.
According to the French army, these “demands testify to the practices of Wagner’s mercenaries, which have been observed since (his) deployment in the Central African Republic and denounced by numerous international organizations and NGOs”. As part of its withdrawal from Mali announced last February, the French army on Tuesday officially handed over the keys of the Gossi base, which housed 300 French soldiers, to the Malian Armed Forces (FAMa).
The French military withdrawal from Mali was decided amid tensions between France and the military junta in power, which Westerners have accused of using the services of the Wagner group. For his part, Bamako conjures up humble Russian advisers. On Tuesday, the staff warned of information attacks on the occasion of the handover of the Gossi base.
The spokesman for the General Staff, Colonel Pascal Ianni, had specified 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.