Russia in Africa: Kremlin’s disinformation operations target the continent

Across Africa and particularly the Sahel region, Russia-backed disinformation operations, a key part of the hybrid warfare, seek to “prop up repressive regimes and harm civilians”, reveals a new analysis published in the latest edition of the Africa Defense Forum (ADF) magazine.
Russia is linked to 40% of all disinformation campaigns across the African continent, AFD reported, describing these operations as “cognitive warfare” run by the Russian Ministry of Defense. Disinformation is a key part of the hybrid warfare that Russia unleashed in Africa in a growing effort to expand its influence and gain control over the continent’s natural resources. The AFD report points out that central to the Russian campaign was the African Initiative, an online outlet with deep ties to the late Wagner Group boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, who built a shadowy network of mercenary, disinformation and mining operations in Africa. After his death in a mysterious plane crash in August 2023, the Russian Defense Ministry took over the Wagner Group’s operations on the continent and rebranded it under the name Africa Corps.
Russia identifies and inflames local grievances to use them to its advantage, the ADF said. For example, one large social network that has been orchestrating a coordinated French-language propaganda anti-Western and pro-Kremlin campaign — called Russosphère (Russian Sphere) — is helping Russia expand its influence at the expense of France in some of its former colonies in Africa. Its typical posts accuse France of modern-day “colonialism”, eulogize Vladimir Putin, and call the Ukrainian army “Nazis” and “Satanists”, echoing the official Russian line. Experts say that such misinformation drives mistrust between African nations and the West, and contributes to a lack of support for Ukraine on the continent. The Kremlin thus exploits Africa’s history of colonialism to whitewash Russia’s own account of civilian massacres, human rights violations and other atrocities committed in Africa.