ADF STAFF
A new Russian news service is drawing criticism for spreading misleading and harmful information in Africa.
The African Initiative is an online platform with deep ties to the notorious Russian mercenary outfit formerly known as the Wagner Group, which now operates on the continent under the control of the Russian Defense Ministry with a rebranded name: the Africa Corps.
Artyom Kureev, director-general of the African Initiative, claims his organization aims to become the “information bridge between Russia and Africa.”
But experts say its true purpose is to disguise and proliferate disinformation in the hope that it will be seen as independent reporting and not as a Moscow-directed propaganda campaign. It has been connected to misinformation about vaccines, public health initiatives and stories designed to undermine democracy and support military dictatorships.
Analyst Jedrzej Czerep, head of the Middle East and Africa Program at the Polish Institute of International Affairs, said the Africa Corps simply picked up the pieces of the Wagner Group’s information warfare operations.
“African Initiative, often serving as [the Africa Corps] media wing, was more accommodating and happy to reuse all assets that were already there,” he told the BBC.
The African Initiative runs a website with stories in Russian, English, French and Arabic. It also has an internet video channel and five Telegram channels, one with more than 55,000 subscribers.
It has local offices in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, and Bamako, Mali — countries where Russian mercenaries operate — and has begun hosting events across the Sahel and West Africa.
In Burkina Faso, there were reports of “friendship lessons” in schools, where students were taught about Russia, a football match preceded by the Russian national anthem and a graffiti festival in which participants drew images of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Some events, such as a cleanup day in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, on September 29, appear to be innocuous, even socially conscious.
But every local participant received a Putin T-shirt and interacted with local journalists and popular bloggers, some whom have gotten caught up in Russia’s influence operations.
This year, the African Initiative has organized and sponsored multiple “press tours” for African reporters and influencers to visit its Moscow headquarters.
Beverly Ochieng, senior associate at the Center for Strategic & International Studies think tank’s Africa program, said Russia is following China’s blueprint of arranging lavish trips that are designed to subject visitors to heavy doses of pro-Russia propaganda and disinformation.
“Russia uses these guided tours as a way of propagating certain narratives,” she told the BBC for a September 9 article.
Once the indoctrinated African journalists report on these themes and “reach out to the audience in languages they recognize,” Ochieng said, they propagate the “impression of authenticity” rather than revealing “a wider campaign used to portray Russia in a positive light.”
Experts call this technique “laundering content” through local individuals and groups.