France says its troops misrepresented in ‘Wakanda Forever’

PARIS (AP) — France's defence minister has denounced the way he says French soldiers deployed in Africa appear to be depicted in the Marvel Studios superhero film “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” as “false and misleading.”

Minister Sebastien Lecornu “strongly condemned” the similarity of a fictional group of villainous mercenaries with French armed forces members, in a tweet published Sunday about the film that came out in November in France and the United States.

The plot of the film involves a fictional African country, Wakanda, faced with Western nations seeking to control fictional metal resources across the continent.

A scene from the film retweeted by the minister shows a group of soldiers with their hands tied behind their backs, wearing uniforms very similar to those of French troops deployed in Africa's Sahel region, being brought before the United Nations in Geneva.

The movie scene depicts mercenaries captured by Wakandans after they attacked an outpost in Mali.

“I am thinking of and honouring the 58 French soldiers who died defending Mali, at its request, in the face of Islamist terrorist groups,” Lecornu added.

The issue is sensitive in France, which completed its withdrawal from Mali last year after nine years of fighting Islamic extremists alongside regional troops.

Tensions have also grown over the past year between Mali, its African neighbours and Western nations after Mali's transitional government allowed Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group to deploy on its territory.

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