Army depicted shady: France condemns new 'Black Panther' movie

Paris: France condemned the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe movie "Black Panther: Wakanda forever" for depicting French troops getting caught while stealing resources from the fictional African kingdom of Wakanda, Agence France-Presse reported.

French defence minister Sebastien Lecornu wrote on Twitter, "I strongly condemn this false and deceptive representation of our armed forces." He was replying to a video clip from the movie posted by a journalist.

The video clip features the scene where a group of French soldiers were bound and brought to a UN meeting after they were caught on a stealth mission into a Wakanda base.

The journalist, who posted the video, commented there that the captured French mercenaries were dressed like soldiers from the real-life military operation, Operation Barkhane.

AFP writes that France is sensitive to its image in West Africa after military juntas in Mali and Burkina Fasoc demanded a withdrawal of French troops deployed in the Sahel region to fight terrorists.

Lecornu also wrote that he is thinking about honouring those 58 soldiers who died defending Mali from Islamic terrorist groups.

However, the ministry told AFP that France would demand the withdrawal of the scene or censorship of a work of art. But it asserted that "no revisionism can be allowed about France's recent actions in Mali," AFP quoted. The ministry said that French troops intervened at Mali's request to fight the armed terrorist groups there, and it is far from what the Marvel movie depicts.

Sources close to the defence minister told AFP that he was angry about the film.

The film releases at a time when Russia turned the West African populations against France and its military deployments, AFP reported.