CHECK – “Power cuts” in France? False information spread by the President of Mali

For the new year 2025, the President of Mali, Assimi Goïta, did not forget to slip in a little word for France, the country's former partner, but now in disgrace since coming to power following the coup. Status of August 2020. A rather astonishing assertion made in Bambara, one of the local languages ​​of Mali: “You have undoubtedly noticed for yourself the electricity cuts that are now occurring in their homes, due to lack of access to uranium”, he said on the ORTM channel. Before adding: “This situation places them in a state of total despair, because they have nothing left to lose. As a result, they no longer feel any fear and can act unpredictably.”

The president of Mali refers in particular to the political tensions between France and Niger, where the Orano factory, a French giant specializing in uranium, has lost control of its subsidiary Somaïr (new window)since December 4, 2024. However, the uranium extracted by the Nigerien subsidiary represented 10% to 15% of annual French uranium imports (new window). So much so that the company announced that it wanted to develop other subsidiaries, particularly in Mongolia (new window)to diversify its supplies. But does the situation confirm the declarations of the Malian president?

No cuts in 2024 or expected in 2025

Since 2022-2023, the Electricity Transmission Network (RTE) has provided a weekly monitoring tool for electricity consumption in France. Its latest report indicates that the outlook for security of supply appears very favorable to date. “The risk for last winter, as for this winter (2024-2025), is the lowest in ten years”explains RTE by email to the TF1 Auditors. In 2024, France has also broken its electricity export record (new window) which dated from 2002.

Regarding the operation of French power plants, no particular fears in sight according to the latest RTE report. “The availability of the nuclear fleet was nearly 47 GW on November 5, 2024, i.e. an availability of 9 and 17 GW respectively higher than that of last year and 2022 on the same dates. The return of nine additional reactors between the beginning of November and the month of January should also make it possible to increase the availability of the fleet in the heart of winter, although the maintenance shutdown of eight reactors is planned for February [2025]”, details the report. Clearly, RTE notes that the situation has greatly improved compared to the year 2022-2023. Furthermore, according to the Orano group (new window)France would have 320,000 tonnes of enriched uranium in stock, allowing it to operate its power plants for approximately seven to eight years.

False information on power cuts in France throughout 2024

But then, what is the head of state of Mali relying on? Although it is difficult to say with certainty, several allegations of power cuts in France have circulated in recent months on pro-Malian accounts, almost systematically linking them to the uranium issue.

In April 2024, an X account of pro-Malian junta disinformation (new window) had notably relayed images of a supposed power outage in France, stating: “it’s the AES (for Sahel Economic Alliance, made up of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso) who did this to him!”. The images relayed in this video actually date back to 2022 (new window) when a power outage affected several districts of Paris for around twenty minutes. An extract from the TF1 newspaper (new window) had also been relayed claiming to document recent power outages, as noted by verification media AFP Facteur (new window).

But this extract, also dating from December 2022, evaluated scenarios in the event of an energy shortage. “At that time, a prevention campaign around energy sobriety was launched, because the electrical system was subject to the problems of stress corrosion for the nuclear fleet and the war in Ukraine for gas”reminds RTE to the Verifiers team, before specifying: “However, there was no load shedding or outage due to a lack of electricity that year.”

Latest example on TikTok in 2024 (new window) : a breakdown in the middle of a women's rugby match between France and England presented as a consequence of the lack of uranium. Except that this match took place on April 30, 2021 (new window)well before the diplomatic tensions between France and Niger.

Power cuts, a sea serpent in Mali

The Malian president's declaration was not made by chance: it was made on January 6, during vows in the presence of customary and religious authorities. “He took advantage of the audience to send a message by saying that Mali is not the only one and that even in developed countries, there are power cuts”analyzes Malick Konaté (new window)journalist and blogger who notably relayed the sequence after being challenged by these comments. “This is clearly a way of masking their failure in the face of load shedding at the local level.” Power cuts are a sea serpent that the Malian transitional authorities have tried to tackle. But local press articles relaying power cuts are regular (new window)some of which can last up to 48 hours in certain areas of the capital, Bamako.

For another Malian journalist who requested anonymity, the objective was also to congratulate the religious authorities to better involve them in the dissemination of this false information. “Every time you say that France has a problem, the people will be happy, but it goes further: during the following Friday prayers, in certain mosques, the imams reported on what had been said the president without verification. For Assimi Goïta, it is a way of massively disseminating false information through listened to authorities.”

The Malian head of state is not the only one to have made references to France during his greetings: for his part, the President of Burkina Faso, Ibrahim Traoré, declared on January 13 (new window) that France had simply “dissolves his device” military presence, but that it was going to maintain a hidden presence “in embassies” or via “security companies”. The President of Niger, Abdourahamane Tiani, stood out in his end-of-year review speech (new window) by alleging, without any proof, that Paris was financing terrorist groups in the region, even accusing France of being partly responsible… for a shortage of onions in the country.

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