Failure of French Special Services’ provocation against Russia
As the Federal News Agency (FAN) recently found out, a special media operation to slander Russia, which began on February 12, was based on a fake interview with a former member of one of the Central African Republic gangs associated with the French Special Services since the beginning of the civil war in that country. The data gathered by FAN correspondents proves that Mahamat Nur Mamadou lost a finger not as a result of torture, but as the special services were preparing an operation to evacuate him to France.
In mid-February, a loud media scandal broke out due to the actions of the French Special Services. Both RFI and AFP almost simultaneously reported the Russians had been torturing locals in the Central African Republic, based on the UN’s closed report, which was somehow accessed by journalists from the French agency RFI. Of course, the UN report did not contain any information that would hint at such a thing. FAN correspondents, in their turn, were able to find out what the report actually was about. The report stated the following:
“Back on January 11, at about 8 o'clock in the morning, a man was stopped near the building of the municipality by two soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Central African Republic, who led him to a base occupied by Russian instructors and interrogated to find out if he was a UPC fighter. Despite the fact the local FACA commander attempted to intervene into the conflict in order to release the detainee, the victim was then taken by car to a nearby territory, where, according to his words, he saw another person lying unconscious on the ground.
There, according to the victim, he was tortured to the end of the day for more than ten people. He was repeatedly beaten, struck with iron sticks and knives, and his left little finger was cut off. The victim was held in a complex with his arms and legs tied until January 16, 2019, when the local gendarmerie was informed and secured his safe release”.
Later the whole network of various news agencies related to AFP began publishing almost identical articles with alleged quotations from an interview with Mahamat Nur Mamadu about him being tortured by the Russians. All the articles contained the same idea: “Russian mercenaries torture people in the Central African Republic.”
Similar articles had appeared in the Western media even earlier. Following the same pattern, the Europeans tried to distort the reasons for the presence of Russians in the Central African Republic, talking about Russian instructors (“mercenaries”), and speaking of PMC Wagner. Crimes are being attributed to FACA instructors that they never committed.
Some interesting details about the personality of Mamadou are being provided. On February 18, journalists from the African edition of Afrique Media, in contrast to the French editions, actually found Mahamat Nur Mamadou, and recorded a conversation with him on video. He turned out to be a militant of the coalition of Islamist groups Séléka that operates in the Central African Republic.
In a brief conversation, an African journalist found out that Mamadou was in Bambari during the battle of January 9, and he lost his finger there. It is worth noting that the UN mission in the Central African Republic, MINUSCA, is to blame for many incidents, since they were the peacekeepers that “provided” the militants with weapons and ammunition, as was reported by the Central African press.
Here is the text of the interview given by Mamadou to Afrique Media:
- Good afternoon, Mister. Could you, please, introduce yourself?
- My name is Mahamat Nur Mamadou.
- Are you a resident of Bambari?
- Yes, I am from Bambari and live in Bambari.
- What really happened and how did you find yourself in such a state?
- I lost my finger in the battle on World Food Day. After I was released, the French came to me. They offered me a large sum of money, so I said that the whites, who work with President Tuadera, tortured me, that is, the Russians did it, and that they brought me to this state.
- Does this mean that “whites” spoke French?
- Yes, they were fluent in French. And they forced me to say that these were the Russians who tortured me, and said that if I did not say this, they would kill me. Every time they came to me, they checked to see if I was telling my story “correctly”, that these in fact were the Russians who tortured me. They promised to take me to France.
- Sir, so to complete the interview: introduce yourself again, please.
- I am Mahamat Nur Mamadou.
- Thank you.
- Thank you, Mr. Journalist.
Mamadou’s words are also proved by the comments given by his neighbors. The neighbors of Mamadou’s uncle also confirmed the fact of the daily visits to Mahamat by the French. They also said that Jacques Razafindranali, the internal security attache at the French embassy in the Central African Republic, came to him as well. Apparently, it was the DGSE employee who checked how well Mamadou remembers “the legend.” A FAN source in the Central African Republic watched the video and expressed the opinion that a clean bandage made of elastic bandage is a big deficit in the CAR, which indirectly confirms that the recruiters of Mahamat Nur Mamadou from the French DGSE service had been monitoring his health.
FAN correspondents sent a request to the DGSE to comment on the fact of the meetings of the embassy employee from the Special Service with the former Séléka militant. The correspondents asked:
- Does the DGSE have proven evidence regarding the topic of “torture” in the CAR?
- Does the DGSE know about the connection of a staff member of a department to a local resident who has allegedly been “injured” by the “torture”? If so, what could they talk about?
- How does the DGSE feel about the fact that an official of the department maintains contact with a resident of the Central African Republic, who was involved in the activities of Séléka?
At FAN’s request for the actions of the DGSE employees dated February 16, the press service only confirmed the fact of receiving the letter: “We have sent it to the appropriate office.”
It is allegedly difficult for them to answer these questions. According to the DGSE press service, they do not have access to a confidential UN report, which, according to the French news media, RFI has. Moreover, the whole French Secret Service was not able to prepare a sane answer.
Unlike the French Special Services, Henri Vanse Linguissara, the Minister of Public Security and the Minister of Territorial Administration of the Central African Republic, whom FAN journalists were able to talk with, shed the light on these events. The official confirmed the fact that there indeed are Russians in the Central African Republic and no one hides it.
According to Linguissara, the representatives of the Russian Federation are engaged in instructor work only. It is quite logical that people who train the army to shoot cannot be involved in investigative measures of any kind, since they are under the jurisdiction of the investigative committee and the appellate court.
The French media campaign against Russia was launched a long time ago, and it shows what French “democracy” is really about. While there are Yellow Vests events in France, and the French media completely ignores the protesters, creating an image of “marginal rebels,” Paris officials hurry to accuse Russia Today of organizing the unrest. While there is unrest in France itself, its Special Services are concerned about losing Africa, where Russia is now returning and where China is actively working.
What we have in the end is that the French Special Services’ operation turned out to be just as effective as the Maginot line: If you look at the surface and don’t dig into it, then the French articles on this issue seem to be solid. However if we look closer, the “elegant fake” falls apart, just like the defense of France back in 1940.
The activities of the French Special Services, as well as the French media, should be treated as carefully as possible. The principles of “liberté, égalité, fraternité” (“freedom, equality, fraternity”) do not appear in France anymore. The Africans from former French colonies would laugh at the word "freedom,” as Paris would never let them go. It’s even superfluous to talk about “fraternity,” as the political feuds and protests in France are all underway.
Intervention in sovereign states’ affairs has become commonplace for France, and African countries suffer the most, because even though the colonial era is over, Paris cannot let the independent countries go. Thus, France can’t be satisfied with the fact the Russians are helping the Central African Republic restore its former well-being. And, of course, trying to regain their former greatness in Africa, the French authorities are prepared to undertake any method. That is why Paris launched a large-scale media campaign to discredit the Russian Federation not only on the continent, but also within the international arena.