France-Mali on networks, disinformation and false accusations
Audio 03:37
A French soldier from Operation Barkhane Force standing on a FAMa (Malian Armed Forces) base with Mount Hombori in the background.
© AFP / Daphné Benoît
By: Sophie Malibeaux
3 min
The Franco-Malian dialogue has entered a zone of turbulence and disinformation is rushing into the breach.
On social networks, serious accusations are made against the French Barkhane force, deployed in the Sahel, gratuitous accusations aimed at fueling anti-French sentiment.
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According to the author of the
tweet
pinned today, France would equip the jihadists with weapons and vehicles.
In any case, this is what Nathalie Yamb says on twitter this week, joking about the delivery by France of law enforcement equipment to the Malian authorities.
However, nothing comes to support these accusations.
To find out more, we went to see the many publications of the author, very active on the internet.
She is followed by more than 168,000 followers on Twitter, 127,000 on her YouTube channel.
Screenshot of Nathalie Yamb's Twitter account taken on October 8, 2021 © Twitter
Free and hammered charges
In fact, no tangible element is provided on this subject at any time. In one of her videos, Nathalie Yamb deplores Barkhane's failure to rid the Sahel of jihadist groups - which we will not dispute here - but she goes much further by accusing France of financing terrorists who 'she fights, and instead of providing proof of her accusations, she develops an argument with conspiratorial accents, with reversal of cause and effect. For her, if the jihadists proliferate in the Sahel, it is because of the presence of French troops and not the other way around. Conclusion, the French must leave Mali. This is what the release of the Swiss-Cameroonian activist insists, regardless of the rant of the Malian executive, in the face of the announced reduction in the workforce of Barkhane,the Transitional Prime Minister Choguel Maïga reproaching France for a
"
Abandonment in mid-flight
"
.
Disinformation and appeal to mercenaries
In reality, Nathalie Yamb makes no secret of her Russian connections. Proud to present herself as "
the lady of Sochi
", she pinned on her twitter wall her intervention at the Russia-Africa forum in Sochi in the fall of 2019 where she declared "
we want the dismantling of the French military bases
". Without knowing very well what the "
we
" refers to. Nathalie Yamb sets herself up as a Pan-Africanist "
freed from tutelage
", as her biography indicates on Twitter. But above all seems to defend Russian interests. In another video, posted on September 26, we hear her openly pleading for the intervention of Russian mercenaries from the Wagner company, which she describes as "
the company of Yevgueni Prigozhin, close to Vladimir Poutine
”.
Unveiled Russian propaganda
These slogans widely relayed on the networks are also heard in demonstrations, sometimes accompanied by anti-French hate speech. Part of the street adheres to it. Because Nathalie Yamb is not alone in propagating this type of pro-Russian and anti-French narrative. The businessman Yevgueni Prigozhin is recruiting through the AFRIC network, agents of influence in the pay of Moscow. The acronym AFRIC stands for Association for Free Research and International Cooperation. Among its most eminent members, Alexandre Malkevich known to have set up one of the pharmacies involved in the disinformation campaigns aimed at propelling Donald Trump to the head of the United States in 2016. The investigative work of Michael Weiss and Pierre Vaux, "
The company you keep, Yevgeny Prigozhin's influence operations in Africa
»Lays bare the network organized by the Russian businessman, and presents the photos of personalities including in particular Nathalie Yamb alongside Alexandre Malkevich, also pinned for his activities in the
troll
factories
of the IRA, Internet Research Agency.
The Russian information strategy is perfectly clear: to
exploit the resentment against the former colonial power
, for the benefit of the establishment of the men of the Russian company, which, by the way, the Kremlin does not officially recognize.
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