French Military Accuses Russian Mercenaries Of Smear Campaign After Bodies Buried In Mali

The French military on Friday revealed that it has video footage of Russian mercenaries caught burying bodies near an army base in northern Mali where French forces departed earlier this week after it was handed over to Malian forces.

The French military insisted that surreptitious efforts to discredit the French forces operating in northern Mali is part of a coordinated campaign of multiple information attacks on them that has been going on for months.

Aerial surveillance footage taken by the French military on Thursday morning and provided to The Associated Press showed what appeared to be 10 Caucasian soldiers covering approximately a dozen Malian bodies with sand at a location 4km (2.5 miles) east of the Gossi military base in the north of Mali.

In the video, one of the soldiers appeared to be filming the burial site.

The Caucasian soldiers in the video are believed to be members of the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary force, according to a French military officer who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the matter.