Mali infowar: how pro-AES accounts spun death of a french soldier

The battle of Anéfis in early July saw Malian forces, backed by Russian elements, clash with terrorist groups. Yet as the fighting subsided, a disinformation campaign targeting French troops emerged—despite the French military’s withdrawal from Mali in August 2022.

from battlefield to misinformation

False claims began circulating quietly on X just days after the fiercest fighting in Anéfis ended. A July 9 post falsely suggested a French soldier had died alongside rebels from the Front de Libération de l’Azawad and the Groupe de Soutien à l’Islam et aux Musulmans. The deception hinged on a real incident: the July 7 death of Sergeant Pena, a Russian-born legionnaire who died in a training accident in France’s Alps. French authorities had already honored his service.

Wagner fighter, not french soldier

The hoax intensified the next day with a photo supposedly showing a dead French soldier in the sand—a white serviceman resembling the late Sergeant Pena. Manipulators exploited the legionnaire’s Russian origins and the visual likeness to sow confusion.

When experts examined the macabre image, they traced it to footage from the Tinzaouatène battle, fought two years earlier in northern Mali. Reverse image searches revealed the same photo of a fallen man in the desert, this time identified as a Russian mercenary. The image surfaced on an anonymous forum where anyone can post unverified claims without accountability.

propaganda video from 2024

Analysis of a six-minute propaganda video released in 2025 by the Front de Libération de l’Azawad to mark the first anniversary of the battle revealed the same body in the sand, alongside other Russian fighters. Despite blurry captures, the alignment of bodies, camouflage patterns, facial features, and haircuts matched perfectly.

This disinformation was built on an out-of-context image—a 2024 archive photo of Wagner fighters killed in Tinzaouatène, not a French soldier allegedly found in Anéfis in 2026.

a weak narrative that failed to convince

The false claim that French troops collude with terrorists is not new. This particular hoax, however, remained confined to familiar Sahelian propaganda accounts and garnered little traction. Commentators quickly called out the manipulation, signaling the limits of a narrative that has been repeated for four years without gaining credibility.

As of now, the post has garnered fewer than 50,000 views on X. Yet the stunt represents an attempt to impersonate a fallen French soldier and dishonors his memory.