The French army has filmed, using a drone, 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 having left a mass grave behind them. In this video, which the French general staff describes as an “informational attack” and to which the AFP was able to have access, we can see Caucasian soldiers busying themselves around corpses which 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 supposed mass grave on his Twitter account, including a photo of blurred corpses 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 at Gossi (…) we can’t keep silent 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 force? “This maneuver to discredit the Barkhane force seems coordinate. It is representative of the multiple information attacks to which the French soldiers have been subjected for many months”, indicates the French army, which also considers that “the comparison of the photos published on Twitter and the images collected by the specialized sensor makes it possible to a direct link between what Wagner’s mercenaries do and what is falsely attributed to the French soldiers”. Still according to the French army, these “exactions testify to the modes of action implemented by Wagner’s mercenaries, which are observed in the Central African Republic since (his) deployment and which have been denounced by many international organizations and NGOs”. As part of its disengagement from Mali, announced last February, the French army officially handed over the keys to the Gossi base, which hosted 300 French soldiers, to the Malian armed forces (FAMa) on Tuesday. The French military withdrawal from Mali has was decided 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 evokes for its part simple Russian advisers. On Tuesday, the staff had warned to expect information attacks on the occasion of the handover of the Gossi base. The spokesman for the staff of the armies, Colonel Pascal Ianni, had specified that A “documented” inventory of the base had been drawn up, in order to protect France from possible accusations. “Several months ago, the French forces were accused of participating in trafficking (…), of arming terrorists and even of committing abuses”, recalled Colonel Ianni.