This week in Reporters: a special report by FRANCE 24's The Observers. After a leak of confidential documents revealed how Russian agents have been planting hundreds of articles in French-speaking media outlets in West and Central Africa, FRANCE 24 travelled to Dakar, Senegal, to investigate this secret operation. Nathan Gallo and Derek Thomson report.
“When you read articles like this, you definitely get the impression they are intended to manipulate opinion,” says Ibrahima Lissa Faye, the Head of Publication at the Senegalese media outlet PressAfrik. He learned from our team last March that his news site had published 13 articles featuring Russian propaganda.
These 13 articles are part of a vast Russian influence campaign on the African continent. A leak of confidential documents revealed the existence of Project Afrika, a Russian operation aimed at using African online media outlets to spread Moscow’s strategic agenda – from anti-France and anti-Ukraine positions to blatant disinformation.
644 articles published and $300,000 spent in just a few months
Pan-African media outlet The Continent received these leaked documents, which were then analysed by a consortium of media outlets including FRANCE 24 and led by Forbidden Stories. The documents belong to a Russian organisation known as Africa Politology – though, internally, it is known as the Company. First created by the mercenary Wagner Group, it was taken over by the Russia's secret services in 2023.
According to the documents, the Company managed to plant 644 articles containing propaganda or disinformation in at least 35 media outlets across central and west Africa between June and November 2024. The campaigns cost more than $300,000.
From 250 to 700 dollars per article: How Russia influenced West African media content
FRANCE 24 travelled to Dakar, Senegal, to follow the trail of these Russian influence operations infiltrating the country’s media outlets. The Company has been directly targeting Senegal, hoping to bring it more firmly into its zone of influence.
This investigation takes us into the opaque world of articles that have been placed in media outlets by local intermediaries, some of whom our journalists have identified as part of a system wherein articles are “ordered” and delivered “ready-to-publish”. Our reporting shows how these sites are dependent on ads and seek to publish as much content as possible, making them especially vulnerable.
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Among others, we identified Cameroonian journalist, Jérôme Ebossama. When contacted, he declined to answer our questions regarding the 18 articles listed in the Company's documents, which he had allegedly published in a West African media outlet. However, he said that the documents published by Africa Confidential – including invoices showing his involvement in an online blogging campaign – are “fake” and “not [his]”, adding that he was the “victim of a manipulation campaign”.
