The Minister of the Armed Forces denounced this Sunday, February 12, the representation of French soldiers in the second part of the Marvel blockbuster “Black Panther” where they are depicted as having come to plunder resources, a reaction which is part of a context of informational warfare in Africa.
“I strongly condemn this misleading and misleading representation of our armed forces”tweets Sébastien Lecornu. “I think and pay tribute to the 58 French soldiers who died defending Mali at its request against Islamist terrorist groups. »
Sébastien Lecornu’s entourage emphasizes “the anger of the minister seeing the film”while France also regularly accuses Russia of waging an information war by manipulating public opinion on its action in the region.
“Defending the results of the Serval and Barkhane operations”
The ministry admits the freedom of a “artistic work” of which France does not claim either the withdrawal or the censorship. On the other hand, “there can be no revisionism about France’s recent action in Mali: we intervened at the request of the country to fight against armed terrorist groups far from the story told in the film, namely a French army which comes to plunder its natural resources”we added.
Cécile Duflot: “In the Sahel, we cannot treat the food, climate and security crises separately”
“It is the minister’s role to defend the results of the Serval and Barkhane operations”deployed respectively in 2013 and 2014 at the request of Bamako to fight against jihadists linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.
The double coup in Mali in 2020 and 2021 sealed the deal. The last French soldier left the country at the end of August. Relations have since been icy between Paris and Bamako, which, according to Paris, offered the services of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, which the junta denies.
Respond “to the narratives of our competitors”
The Minister’s reaction is also part of Paris’ desire to respond “to the narratives of our competitors” in Africa, we recognize in the ministry. A direct allusion to the deterioration of the image of France in public opinion in the Sahel, amplified in particular by Russian propaganda, in particular by the galaxy of media organs linked to the Wagner group.
“The resurgence of abuses in central Mali coincides with the arrival of Russian paramilitaries”
The very latest National Strategic Review (RNS), presented by President Emmanuel Macron last November, thus erected among the “strategic functions” of defense the concept “influence” which includes the fight against false information for the purpose of destabilization.
