Between Paris and Moscow, the information war is raging in Africa
The detail has not escaped the cameras. In the crowd of demonstrators who blocked the road this week at a French military convoy in Burkina Faso, a tricolor flag was raised. Not that of France, but that, in the same colors but horizontally, of Russia.
Opposed to the French presence, hundreds of protesters erected barricades to block the passage of vehicles, forcing the soldiers of the counterterrorism operation Barkhane to take refuge in a military camp near Ouagadougou.
This is not the first time that the Russian flag has appeared in protests in French-speaking Africa. The same symbol was, for example, brandished last October 29 in Bamako, during a march against “foreign interference”, and before that in Bangui, in the Central African Republic.
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It did not take more for Paris to accuse the Kremlin. “There are manipulators, by social networks, by fake news, by the instrumentalization of part of the press, who act against France, some sometimes even inspired by European networks, I am thinking of Russia” , accused French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on November 21.
This denunciation also sounds like an admission of failure. “Paris has fallen behind in the information war,” notes Bakary Sambe, regional director of the Timbuktu Institute in West Africa. France has relied on its achievements and still operates with old software, favoring representative diplomacy and neglecting influence and civil societies. “In short, too many enarques in suits and ties at social dinners, not enough dialogue with the people, they whisper in Bamako.
Other observers – even those close to the French president – point to the “rusty” communication from Paris. The latest, this austere advertising billboard seen on several arteries of Bamako, example displayed, on a black background, this message: “#Barkhanesetransforme #Ensemble”.
After eight years of intervention in the Sahel, the French force, in difficulty on the ground, where jihadist groups proliferate, began its partial withdrawal in the fall, to halve its workforce by 2022. As the security situation is deteriorating, popular distrust is growing towards Barkhane. A boulevard for the Russians, not content to exploit this feeling to strengthen their strategy of influence.
An infiltrated radio
The Kremlin is investing in all directions to broadcast this little anti-French music. It relies first of all on an official system via the two main channels of public external audiovisual sound, the Sputnik press agency and the RT television channel. Established first in the Maghreb, they have extended their presence in sub-Saharan Africa and relied on cooperation with locals, explains in a recent study, researcher Maxime Audinet, from IRSEM. RT and Sputnik have signed several content-sharing agreements with the Congolese National Radio-Television and the Ivorian Press Agency. Without forgetting the “RT School” and “SputnikPro”, two training programs for African journalists.
Behind this public facade, Russia is conducting more discreet operations, directly infiltrating local media. The case of Radio Lengo Sengo, in the Central African Republic (CAR), one of the most popular in Bangui, is eloquent. Main investor son? The Russian company Lobaye Invest, linked to Evgueni Prigogine, a businessman close to Vladimir Poutine. Counterpart of this patronage, an editorial line openly pro-Russian and hostile to France. “By its funding methods and its editorial line, Lengo Songo, the ‘radio for peace and national reconciliation’, is in fact a subcontractor for Russian actors” analyze Maxime Audinet in another article. By acting “underwater”, they can “better target their audiences, dilute their accountability and distribute content serving their interests”.
Reading the Radio Lengo Sengo website leaves little room for doubt. Among the examples cited by the researcher, this paper from May 19, 2021 entitled: “The population is delighted: France will leave the Central African Republic” or the articles very critical of RFI the day after its investigation into the abuses of the paramilitaries Russian Wagner in the country. “An investigation, fragmented and partial by Radio France Internationale, incriminating the Central African Armed Forces (FACA) and their allies, strangely the Russians” charges the radio.
To serve the Kremlin’s communications, the Lobaye Invest company has many other strings to its bow. It even targets toddlers. Evidenced by this funny cartoon, broadcast in the summer of 2019 in a traveling cinema that toured the Central African Republic. Three minutes to the glory of a bear “coming from a far north country called Russia”, coming to save the country from the thirsty hyenas – France, that is, looting it. All told in French by a thin, slender voice with a Slavic accent.
But to reach as many people as possible, the businessman Prigogine has another secret boot: troll farms that are rampant on social networks. Several accounts using local avatars have thus been spotted on Facebook, disseminating false information, such as the story of this “senior executive” of Operation Barkhane arrested in Bamako in possession of heroin.
Several profiles responsible for this information were suspended by the platform, which also deleted false accounts linked to France, obviously in charge of an anti-Russian response. “Given its timing, content and methods, the French counterattack was, in part, a direct reaction to Prigogine’s troll operations in Africa, revealed by Facebook in 2019” analysis, in an in-depth study, Stanford University. But the researchers regret that this replica borrows the same methods as the adversary. “By creating fake accounts to fight against trolls, the French operators perpetuated and implicitly justified the problems they were trying to fight” they warn.
The “Lady of Sochi”
“France woke up too late” summarizes Bakary Sambe and is today in a delicate situation, in particular in the Sahel. Russia benefits from this all the more easily because it shares a good reputation in many African countries, where the Soviet Union was established after independence. Many Malian politicians and soldiers, for example, studied in Moscow or Saint Petersburg, as is the case with several leaders of the Malian junta in power.
Retired soldiers, also linked to Moscow, are also active in a well-known association in Bamako: the Group of Malian Patriots. At the initiative of numerous demonstrations in recent months, “he has taken over all the Russian propaganda concerning the French in the Sahel and the benefits of a Russian presence to replace them” indicates a keen connoisseur of the dossier. With only a few dozen members, the association nevertheless manages to mobilize well beyond its circle. An ideal megaphone for the Kremlin, which has been able to rely on African “influencers” popular in their country.
“In October 2021, the Africa summit in Montpellier, at the initiative of the Elysee Palace, honored civil societies, but in 2019, in Sochi, the first Russia-Africa summit put personalities on the ramp like Nathalie Yamb “recalls an analyst from the region.
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The Swiss-Cameroonian activist, who has nearly 180,000 followers on Twitter, sets herself up as a “pan-Africanist”. She had made a remarked speech, very hostile to France. “We want the dismantling of the French soldiers who, under cover of phony defense agreements, only serve to allow the plundering of our resources, the maintenance of rebellions, the training of terrorists and the maintenance of dictators in the head of our states “she declared. The activist had earned the nickname “Lady of Sochi”, one more relay to open the door to the continent to Russia.
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