Mali's military junta accused the French army of "espionage" and "acts of sabotage" on Tuesday evening after it used a drone to film a video allegedly showing soldiers burying bodies near a Malian military base recently restored by Paris.
A statement issued by the Bamako government confirmed that the authorities "have noticed since the beginning of the year more than 50 cases of deliberate violations of Malian airspace by foreign aircraft, especially aircraft belonging to the French forces."
He added that one of the most recent cases of "violation of Malian airspace" was the "illegal presence of a march of French forces on April 20, 2022 over the Gaussie base. In addition to espionage, the French forces were guilty of acts of sabotage by publishing false pictures of the indictment (Mali soldiers)." committing the crimes of killing civilians.
"The aforementioned drone was present (...) to spy on our brave armed forces," the Malian government statement continued.
On April 21, two days after returning the Gossi military base, the French army accused members of the Wagner Group of manipulating the information, and published pictures that it said were of these mercenaries burying bodies near this base with the aim of accusing the French of leaving a mass grave behind.
The video - which the French army filmed in a march - shows soldiers busy around corpses covering them with sand.
The French General Staff described it as a "media attack".
The following day, the General Staff of the Malian armies said, "Bodies were found in a state of advanced decomposition in a mass grave not far from the camp formerly occupied by the French Barkhane force."
As part of its withdrawal from Mali, which was announced in February, the French army on April 19 officially handed over the armed forces of this country, the Gossi base, which housed 300 French soldiers.
Paris decided in February to withdraw from Mali in an atmosphere of deteriorating security against the backdrop of tension between France and the ruling military council, which the Westerners accuse of using the services of the Wagner Group, while Bamako, for its part, confirms the presence of ordinary Russian trainers.