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French drone footage of Russian mercenaries at a mass grave in Gossi
Photo: HANDOUT/AFP
A few days ago, the French general staff released drone footage showing mercenaries from the Russian Wagner Group near a mass grave in Mali.
The accusation: The mercenaries would stage the grave in such a way that they could blame the killing of French soldiers.
Now the military junta in power in Mali has reacted – and has accused the French army of »espionage« and »subversion«.
Mali's "damaged image"
France had therefore published "false" drone images, the Malian armed forces "accused of killing civilians and thus damaging their image," the government said on Tuesday evening.
The junta also complained that foreign aircraft had violated Malian airspace "more than 50" times since the beginning of the year - including when taking the drone images.
The Malian government's criticism refers to images of the Gossi base in the center of the West African country.
The French cleared the base a week ago and released the pictures shortly thereafter.
Video footage shows mercenaries from the Russian Wagner Group covering corpses with sand near the base.
A mercenary takes photos of the corpses, later pictures appeared on the net that presumably came from the mercenary.
The buried bodies probably came from a shootout by Wagner mercenaries at a checkpoint.
A satellite video documents such a firefight.
Shortly after the images became known, the Malian army announced the discovery of a mass grave near the base.
"The advanced state of decomposition of the corpses indicates that this mass grave existed long before the withdrawal (of the French troops)," the Malian side explained at the time.
On Tuesday, the Malian military judiciary announced an investigation "for full clarification".
In February, the French government decided to withdraw its troops from the West African country.
The reason for this was tensions between France and the ruling military junta, which the West has accused of using the services of the Wagner group.
Wagner is seen by the West as an extension of the Russian government.
The Kremlin contradicts this account, the government of Mali for its part only from Russian "military advisers".
In 2012, an Islamist uprising began in Mali and spread to the neighboring countries of Burkina Faso and Niger.
Several thousand soldiers and civilians have already been killed in the conflict and two million people have been displaced from their homes.
mrc/AFP