France says its troops misrepresented in ‘Wakanda Forever’

PARIS (AP) — France’s defense 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 U.S. The issue is sensitive in France, which completed its withdrawal from Mali last year after nine years fighting Islamic extremists alongside regional troops. Tensions have also grown between Mali, its African neighbors and Western nations after Mali’s transitional government allowed Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group on its territory.