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Propaganda swamps social media but Moscow fails to sway the juntas

Ibrahim Traoré, Assimi Goïta and Abdourahamane Tiani. Pic: @PresidenceMali
Ibrahim Traoré, Assimi Goïta and Abdourahamane Tiani. Pic: @PresidenceMali

Leaked memos reveal millions spent on pro-Russian online stories, but the documents’ claims to be directing policies in friendly states don’t check out

A cache of 75 secret Russian memos about the Kremlin’s propaganda offensive in Africa by the Wagner Group and its successor organisation, ‘The Company’, has exposed a vast disinformation campaign and ambitious plans to influence the military juntas in the Sahel, along with other African governments. Mostly written in 2024 and leaked in recent months, the documents reveal a continent-wide social media operation that spent significant sums persuading websites and journalists to spread disinformation about Russia’s war with Ukraine, French and United States policy in Africa, and a range of pro-Kremlin conspiracy theories.

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How Moscow wages social media war

Copyright © Africa Confidential 2026
Copyright © Africa Confidential 2026

Some 35 websites or media organisations published 700 stories at Russian instigation for fees ranging from $250 to $700 per article

The documents leaked from ‘The Company’, the inheritor of the Wagner Group’s network in Africa, itemise US$7.3 million spent on social media ‘influencers’ and journalists to promote the...

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Berlin raises €1.5bn for Sudan but fails to rein in its warlords

THREE YEARS OF WAR IN SUDAN: Efforts to broker a ceasefire have been sidelined by the US-Iran war. Copyright © Africa Confidential 2026
THREE YEARS OF WAR IN SUDAN: Efforts to broker a ceasefire have been sidelined by the US-Iran war. Copyright © Africa Confidential 2026

Three years into a war that has killed 150,000 people, the world's diplomats found it easier to write cheques than to name the Gulf states fuelling the fighting

More than 120 delegations met in Berlin on April 15 for an international conference marking three years of Sudan's civil war and raising pledges of over €1.5 billion...

Ruto’s RSF ties under scrutiny

Pic: @AlgoneyHD
Pic: @AlgoneyHD

Allegations over Kenya’s role in Sudan’s conflict – all denied by Nairobi – are straining relations with Khartoum

The detail in a United States Treasury Department sanctions list in February that Algoney Hamdan Dagalo Musa, the youngest brother of the Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF)...

A new axis emerges

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Abiy Ahmed, February 2026. Pic: @AbiyAhmedAli
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Abiy Ahmed, February 2026. Pic: @AbiyAhmedAli

Fresh evidence reveals covert military cooperation on Ethiopia’s western frontier, reshaping the dynamics of Sudan’s war

When Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in February, he raised questions about Ethiopia’s rumoured involvement in Sudan’s war and the alleged presence...

Abiy opts for a pause in Tigray – for now

Tadesse Werede. Pic: @PMEthiopia
Tadesse Werede. Pic: @PMEthiopia

Tadesse Werede’s extended mandate points to a fragile accommodation, with both sides managing pressure while holding off a renewed clash

With the mandate of Tigray’s interim administration expiring, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has opted to retain the existing leadership rather than push Tigrayan allies into authority. Federal authorities...

Doumbouya won’t bite on iron ore plan

Mamady Doumbouya. Pic: @Presidence_gn
Mamady Doumbouya. Pic: @Presidence_gn

A US-backed mining bid is stalling as environmental warnings and political hesitation in Conakry leave Ivanhoe Atlantic struggling for traction

The United States-registered Ivanhoe Atlantic, which aims to develop the Kon Kweni iron ore mine in southeast Guinea, has intensified its efforts to secure a mining permit after...

Atiku wants election help from Washington

Atiku Abubakar. Pic: @atiku
Atiku Abubakar. Pic: @atiku

The former Vice-President has hired US lobbyists to exploit the Trump’s administration’s enmity towards President Tinubu

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has become the latest Nigerian politician to throw money at K-Street lobbyists, hiring Von Batten, Montague, York on a US$1.2 million retainer as he...

Hormuz crisis threatens Africa’s harvests

Satellite image, Strait of Hormuz. Pic: Aerial View / stock.adobe.com
Satellite image, Strait of Hormuz. Pic: Aerial View / stock.adobe.com

The continent may be a major fertiliser producer, but farmers still import more than 80% of what they use – leaving them highly exposed

Urea prices have almost doubled in a month, and with the World Bank reducing its growth forecasts, the United States-Israeli war with Iran is hitting African farmers at...

DA triumvirate bets on black votes to break its political ceiling

Ashor Sarupen, Geordin Hill-Lewis and Solly Msimanga. Pic: @Our_DA
Ashor Sarupen, Geordin Hill-Lewis and Solly Msimanga. Pic: @Our_DA

Geordin Hill-Lewis's election as Democratic Alliance leader at its biggest-ever congress gives the party a credible shot at winning the country's top cities

The second largest party in South Africa’s governing coalition, the Democratic Alliance (DA) has renewed its leadership at the biggest national conference in its history and set its...

Hotel scandal undermines Mutharika’s reform claims

Amaryllis Hotel, Blantyre. Pic: amaryllishotelsmw
Amaryllis Hotel, Blantyre. Pic: amaryllishotelsmw

A parliamentary probe into an overpriced deal is overshadowing the President’s return to power

Barely six months into his second term, President Peter Mutharika’s administration is engulfed in overlapping scandals that are raising questions about his commitment to end corruption.

Rabat buys influence in Washington, branding Polisario as the Houthis of West Africa

Nasser Bourita. Pic: @MarocDiplomatie
Nasser Bourita. Pic: @MarocDiplomatie

King Mohammed VI’s government is trying to convince the White House and Congress to sanction the Sahrawi independence movement, claiming it has links to Iran

Morocco is aiming to tighten its grip on Western Sahara by getting the United States Congress to designate the Sahrawi independence movement’s political arm, the Polisario Front, as...

Debt time bomb blows open the Sonko-Faye pact

Ousmane Sonko. Pic: @SonkoOfficiel
Ousmane Sonko. Pic: @SonkoOfficiel

Dakar is paying the creditors but the political split between the president and the premier is widening

As Beijing has started to hold back vital funding, Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko faces intensifying pressure to reach an accommodation with the IMF. The open rift between the...

The race for Francophonie chief heats up

Louise Mushikiwabo. Pic: @OIFrancophonie
Louise Mushikiwabo. Pic: @OIFrancophonie

With the deadline for nominations for Secretary-General of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) just weeks away, the four contenders face six months of international lobbying before...

Africa pays the aid price

Carsten Staur. Pic: @DACchairOECD
Carsten Staur. Pic: @DACchairOECD

African countries are bearing the brunt of swingeing cuts to official development assistance, which fell to US$174.3 billion in 2024 – a 23% drop – according to data...

Europe offers a green embrace

Ronald Lamola and Johann Wadephul. Pic: @RonaldLamola
Ronald Lamola and Johann Wadephul. Pic: @RonaldLamola

A new €200 million concessional climate loan, and more than €270m in German and EU funding for projects focused on green hydrogen and battery value chains, were the...

Boom at the top, struggle at the bottom

ANGOLA: DEBT BURDEN CONTINUES TO STRAIN NATIONAL FINANCES. Copyright © Africa Confidential 2026
ANGOLA: DEBT BURDEN CONTINUES TO STRAIN NATIONAL FINANCES. Copyright © Africa Confidential 2026

The oil revenues are rising, but with over 40% of the budget swallowed by debt servicing, the gains are not reaching those who need them most

The loss of a peacemaker: Adieu Nicholas Haysom

Nicholas Haysom briefs reporters after the Security Council meeting on the situations in Sudan and South Sudan, New York.March 2023. Pic: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas
Nicholas Haysom briefs reporters after the Security Council meeting on the situations in Sudan and South Sudan, New York.March 2023. Pic: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

Fink Haysom, the anti-apartheid lawyer who helped end Sudan's north-south war and spent his final years trying to mediate in South Sudan serial crises, has died

After the Sahel rout, Europe courts the coast

Kaja Kallas and Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang at the signing of the EU-Ghana Security and Defence Partnership. Pic: @kajakallas
Kaja Kallas and Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang at the signing of the EU-Ghana Security and Defence Partnership. Pic: @kajakallas

Expelled from the Sahel and estranged from Washington, the EU has signed its first African security pact with Ghana and wants Nigeria as an Atlantic anchor

Mnangagwa’s war on the constitution

Emmerson Mnangagwa presides over the 391st Ordinary Session of the ZANU-PF Politburo, Harare, March 2026. Pic: @edmnangagwa
Emmerson Mnangagwa presides over the 391st Ordinary Session of the ZANU-PF Politburo, Harare, March 2026. Pic: @edmnangagwa

Arrests, abductions and armed militias mark ZANU-PF’s campaign for a constitutional amendment that would end direct presidential elections

How Juba is engineering mass hunger

UNMISS Peacekeepers in Akobo, South Sudan, 2018. Pic: UN Photo/Nektarios Markogiannis
UNMISS Peacekeepers in Akobo, South Sudan, 2018. Pic: UN Photo/Nektarios Markogiannis

Forced displacement is pushing Jonglei towards famine conditions as the government expels the very agencies trying to avert catastrophe

ZiG, fuel and broken promises

Big5ZiG Awareness Campaign – Reserve Bank Chief of Staff Moris Mpofu explains BiG 5 ZiG features, Bulawayo Province, March 2026. Pic: rbz.co.zw
Big5ZiG Awareness Campaign – Reserve Bank Chief of Staff Moris Mpofu explains BiG 5 ZiG features, Bulawayo Province, March 2026. Pic: rbz.co.zw

Siege mentality pushes politics to brink

SOUTH SUDAN: THE RISKS OF A RETURN TO ALL-OUT CIVIL WAR. Copyright © Africa Confidential 2026
SOUTH SUDAN: THE RISKS OF A RETURN TO ALL-OUT CIVIL WAR. Copyright © Africa Confidential 2026

Juba looks determined to escalate the fighting by marginalising Riek Machar’s camp and unilaterally rewriting the 2018 peace accord

Wadagni chases a mandate

Romuald Wadagni. Pic: @WadagniRomuald
Romuald Wadagni. Pic: @WadagniRomuald

With real competition stripped from the race, the finance minister’s biggest obstacle is persuading citizens to turn out at all

Mahama gets caught in the cocoa trap

Price adjustment painful but necessary to sustain the cocoa sector – Randy Abbey, Cocobod CE, 18 March 2026. Pic: cocobod.gh
Price adjustment painful but necessary to sustain the cocoa sector – Randy Abbey, Cocobod CE, 18 March 2026. Pic: cocobod.gh

A mid-season farmgate price cut of nearly 30% has sent farmers into the streets, exposed Cocobod's $3 billion debt mountain and is damaging the President politically

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