Gold and diamonds pursued through baseless rumors and fake news. Russia slips deep into African mines wielding the weapon of disinformation. In recent years, the Kremlin has heightened its presence in Africa not only via military and economic pacts but through sophisticated campaigns of misinformation. The aim behind these operations is to broaden its influence on the continent, push back against Western leadership, and secure access to natural resources.
Its tactic of flooding social networks with falsehoods and mass comments in support of its cause has stoked political unrest, validated coups, shaped public opinion, and served as a smokescreen for corruption. Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger in the Sahel region, located only about 400 kilometers from the Canary Islands, are the preferred theaters for Moscow’s operations, which contribute to destabilizing the area and push people to seek safer places to settle.
In this region, thousands of internal movements occur between neighboring countries—from the heavy flow of Malian refugees into Mauritania to many choosing the Canary route. According to the North American think tank Africa Center for Strategic Studies, 11 of the 15 African nations with the highest levels of forced displacement have drawn Russian interventions aimed at undermining democracy through tools like deception and fake news.
Two in five disinformation pieces circulating in Africa are orchestrated from Moscow
If misinformation is not unique to Moscow, what makes the Kremlin’s use special? Security and defense analyst and coordinator at osintsahel.com, Jesús Pérez Triana, explains that Russia has established a foothold in Africa by backing juntas and authoritarian leaders. “It has planted itself where there is no democracy, no checks and balances, and no free public opinion,” he notes.
Russia’s strategy centers on “promoting dictatorship” and pushing the idea of the “strongman.” For the Russians, as Pérez Triana points out, the democratic system imported from Europe has failed to fix Africa’s problems, making now the moment for military juntas. “They roll back freedoms and violate human rights. In Mali, political activity is restricted; in Burkina Faso, media work is censored,” the analyst adds.
The misinformation campaigns designed to manipulate African information systems have nearly quadrupled since 2022, triggering destabilizing and anti-democratic consequences. In March, Africa Center identified 189 misinformation maneuvers across the continent, nearly four times higher than two years earlier.
Russia—followed by China, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar—accounts for around 40% of these maneuvers. From Moscow, 80 campaigns based on false narratives were coordinated across 22 West African countries. These actions reached millions of users through thousands of fake pages and posts, according to the study, which warns that aggressive use of irregular channels is part of Russia’s plan to gain influence in Africa.
Gold and Diamonds
The analysis argues that the Kremlin has flooded the Sahel with disinformation since 2018, directing 19 campaigns at Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, countries that have seen military coups that Russian networks helped to prepare and promote. Russia bets on derailing fragile African democracies and presents itself as a reliable ally to juntas that seize power after a coup.
The Kremlin has already embedded the idea in Africa that, unlike the West, it is a trustworthy ally ready to assist. What is the payoff of this influence work? Pérez Triana notes that Russia is focusing on control of raw materials, such as gold in Sudan or diamonds in the Central African Republic. It is using pressure on a Canadian-owned company that runs the region’s largest gold mine in Mali, while Russian mercenaries are attempting to gain control of areas where gold is mined—often through artisanal means.
The second-largest sponsor of disinformation in West Africa, according to the report, is the Malian and Burkinabe juntas themselves. These regimes are isolated and increasingly dependent on Russian support to stay in power. The study says they imitate Russian disinformation techniques while turning France, the United Nations, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and human rights groups into scapegoats.
The destabilization of the region fuels internal migration flows and drives people toward island enclaves and distant shores.
How do these misinformation campaigns operate? They pay influencers, deploy digital avatars, and circulate fake videos and out-of-context photographs. Messages are copied and pasted and amplified across official state-controlled media channels and paid social media advertising networks.
In this way, spaces are built where a narrative is repeated often enough for it to feel real. The Africa Center’s study also notes that Russian embassies appear to have helped establish a network of ostensibly African grassroots groups to generate and amplify misinformation.
Mercenaries
The Wagner group has been the Kremlin’s main vehicle for shaping Africa’s disinformation landscape. The study notes that Russian mercenaries are directly linked to roughly half of the continent’s campaigns tied to Moscow. After Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner’s founder, died in 2023, Russia’s disinformation work has been absorbed by the newly formed Africa Corps and the Africa Initiative news agency, connected to Russian intelligence and supervised from Moscow.
The steady Russian push to undermine democracy in Africa feeds broader political backsliding across the continent. Africa Center notes that disinformation campaigns are almost always paired with efforts to interfere in elections to keep Moscow-friendly regimes in power, prolong mandates beyond constitutional limits, or validate coups. In this way, Vladimir Putin’s regime seeks to hinder political rights, civil liberties, and executive checks from gaining real traction across Africa.
Sources: Africa Center for Strategic Studies; expert commentary from OsintSahel; country case studies on Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and regional mining interests. These references provide context for the described trends and emphasize the ongoing risks posed by international disinformation campaigns in Africa.