Mali: Mission to preserve Timbuktu texts almost complete

Today we debunk photos shared on Facebook claiming to show "Russian ships arriving in Algeria to support Mali". Also, a slip of the tongue by the French Polynesian president Édouard Fritch is ripe for manipulation. Our team fact-check two stories circulating on social media, that should not be taken at face value.

Militants killed at least 31 people in central Mali on Friday (December 3) when they fired upon a bus ferrying people to a local market, local authorities said - the latest deadly attack in a region racked by violent insurgency. The bus was attacked by unidentified gunmen as it travelled its twice-weekly route from the village of Songho to a market in Bandiagara, 10 kilometres (6 miles) away, said Moulaye Guindo, mayor of the nearby town of Bankass.

French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly granted an interview to FRANCE 24 and RFI in Dakar, Senegal. Parly slammed a "disinformation campaign" aimed at creating "anti-French discourse" in Africa's Sahel region, as France reorganises its military presence there. The minister said she did not believe Russian Wagner Group mercenaries were in the Malian capital Bamako, but added that "that does not mean the current Malian authorities are not planning to bring them there". The arrival of Russian mercenaries in Mali would be "simply unacceptable", she said.

For almost a decade, international forces in Mali have been trying to help fight Islamist groups that threatened to take over the country in 2012. But today, the government still only controls the capital and a small area around it. DW's Fred Muvunyi reports.

As Mali and Russia continue to strengthen their military cooperation, a video purporting to show Russian helicopters during military exercises in Mali does not necessarily seem that far-fetched. So how to go about debunking it? Find out in Truth or Fake.

French troops leave a key base in Timbuktu, handing it over to the Malian military. We explain how this marks a turning point in France’s wider Sahel mission. Also, Kenya's High Court suspends a mandatory Covid-19 vaccination order, saying it violates the constitution. Finally, Congolese rumba wins UNESCO World Heritage status. FRANCE 24 shows you how the music and dance tradition jumped from Africa to Cuba to the world.

Many Facebook groups based in Mali and Nigeria began sharing a video of a helicopter on December 9, claiming it showed an aircraft delivering weapons to terrorists. In Mali, the posts often accused the French government of operating the helicopter, while posts coming from Nigeria laid the blame on the Nigerian government. In reality, the video is from neither one of these countries – it was filmed in the Central African Republic during a routine supply drop.

Nine years after Timbuktu welcomed them as liberators, French troops are withdrawing from their final outpost in Mali's far north. There's no unruliness here, but also no cries of mission accomplished: the jihadist radicals who scattered when French-led forces intervened have long since morphed into a low-intensity insurgency with raids as far away as the far north of Benin. With the summer's chaos in Afghanistan still fresh in memories, when is the right time to end military intervention?

Nine years after Timbuktu welcomed them as liberators, French troops are withdrawing from their final outpost in Mali's far north. There's no unruliness here, but also no cries of mission accomplished: the jihadist radicals who scattered when French-led forces intervened have long since morphed into a low-intensity insurgency with raids as far away as the far north of Benin. With the summer's chaos in Afghanistan still fresh in memories, when is the right time to end military intervention?

The country's military government has its work cut out for it, as it copes with the threat of Islamic extremism and ECOWAS sanctions.

West African bloc ECOWAS said they hoped to have an election plan from Mali by the end of this year, after a meeting with the interim leaders. Mali's authorities had previously said elections could be delayed.

French troops left their military base in Timbuktu as part of a reorganization of Operation Barkhane announced by French president Emmanuel Macron in June. The Kidal and Tessalit bases were handed over to the Malian army in October and November, respectively.