Russia stepping up disinformation in Mali: US

The United States on Tuesday Russia of ratcheting up a disinformation effort in Mali , claiming it was trying to divert attention away from “atrocities” committed by the Moscow-linked Wagner Group.

Since France’s withdrawal from Mali, Western diplomats have pressured the country to reject the Wagner Group, whose mercenaries have also been accused of human rights violations in Libya, the Central African Republic, and Syria.

The Wagner Group and other businesses associated to Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman rumoured to be close to President Vladimir Putin, are “exploiting tumultuous situations through disinformation,” according to a report by the State Department.

“Russia’s intensified application of disinformation and the use of the Wagner Group across Africa has spread a trail of lies and human rights abuses,” it said.

“Amid mounting reporting that the Wagner Group has committed atrocities in Mali since its arrival in 2021, Russia’s disinformation and propaganda ecosystem continue to deploy false narratives to deflect attention and avoid responsibility.”

The State Department said that Russia has been promoting the official line of Mali’s military-dominated government that troops “neutralized” jihadists in a March incident in the village of Moura.

Human Rights Watch quoted witnesses who said that Russian-speaking troops were involved and that an estimated 300 civilian men were summarily executed.

The State Department also pointed to the French army’s charge that Russian mercenaries buried bodies near a base in an attempt on social media to allege atrocities by French troops as they withdrew.

France in February began to leave Mali after nearly a decade-long deployment aimed at fighting jihadists.

Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, has accused France of having a “colonial attitude” toward Mali, describing the Wagner Group as a private military organization that was invited “on a commercial basis.”

The struggle for African influence occurs as the West’s relations with Russia deteriorate due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.