PHOTO: Bizarre footage of Malian demonstrators protesting against France and Russia

In Mali’s capital, Bamako, pro-government protesters unfurled placards with Russian flags and slogans such as “Down with France” in a bizarre demonstration on Friday.

Forces from France, a former French colony, have long been operating in the troubled African state to deal with Islamist rebels, but a European Union member state led by Emmanuel Macron has halted these operations due to escalating tensions with the Mali government. approaching Russia and Russian mercenaries for support.

On Friday, supporters of the military government marched in support of the change, some wearing Vladimir Putin masks and others bearing signs that the Russian leader stabbed President Macron in a martial arts outfit with wheels on his neck.

Slogans such as “Down with France” and “Down with MINUSMA” were reportedly chanted – the latter referring to the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission (MINUSMA) in Mali.

Earlier this year, US officials said they were “watching the financial junta bring Russian mercenaries home. They are invited.”

“They continue to deny it publicly, but my information is pretty clear, they called Wagner,” US Army General Stephen J. Townsend, commander of the US Africa Command, told reporters in February, according to VICE.

The following month, Malian forces and foreign mercenaries, believed to be Russians, rounded up and killed hundreds of people, allegedly in the city of Mura, in an attempt to suppress armed Islamists in the country, according to Human Rights Watch.

Mali forces, trained by the European Union, are also said to have committed atrocities.