Disinformation campaigns (also known as foreign manipulation and interference campaigns) aimed at manipulating African information systems have nearly quadrupled in Africa since 2022, leading to destabilizing and anti-democratic consequences. These campaigns have continued to proliferate in 2024, particularly in conflict zones across the continent.

West Africa has become the epicentre of disinformation on the continent. The Sahelian juntas, aided in their takeovers by these campaigns, have become laboratories for the deployment of the Russian disinformation toolbox. Coupled with the juntas’ assault on the media, this has helped transform the region into an environment where information is extremely malleable.

Russian disinformation campaigns covertly shift national debates in targeted countries (such as South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria), even as the Kremlin-linked African Initiative recruits local proxies to spread conspiracies about public health in Africa.

Disinformation campaigns supported by the Chinese Communist Party have benefited from its opaque control over African media to produce biased and misleading reporting that is then amplified in these same Chinese disinformation campaigns.

Democratic elections in Africa continue to be a prime target for disinformation campaigns. South Africa and Ghana have been subjected to an onslaught of misleading and false messages from external actors. However, both countries have taken this threat seriously and have begun developing resilience to detect, analyze, alert, and empower citizens and key stakeholders to confront these campaigns.

For more information :

• • https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portail:Afrique
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa
  • https://africacenter.org/
  • https://journals.openedition.org/etudesafricaines/
  • https://etudes-africaines.cnrs.fr/
  • https://journals.openedition.org/etudesafricaines/
  • https://www.afdb.org/fr/documents-publications/economic-perspectives-en-afrique-2024