BANNER: Screen capture of a post alleging France interfered with Guinean elections. (Source: Actualités et Infos en Afrique)

Since January 2022, a network of sixteen inauthentic Facebook pages has spread anti-France, pro-Russia, and pro-Alliance of Sahel States narratives throughout West Africa and in France via posts and sponsored ads. In addition, the pages spread unverified material and hyper-partisan content targeting elections in Senegal, Guinea, and France. Our investigation found that the operators of the fraudulent pages spent at least €2,848 in sponsored ads since the pages’ creation in 2022.

Throughout West Africa, a subset of three pages totaling 84,000 followers reposted content from Russian state media outlets RT and Sputnik. The pages used cartoons to spread satirical imagery that sought to discredit France and the United Nation’s peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (CAR), commonly referred to as MINUSCA, contrasted with content promoting Russia’s work with the Central African Armed Forces (FACA). Our investigation also suspects a possible connection with the now-disbanded Wagner Group and the Russian armed forces, as leaders of Russian-sponsored activities were also portrayed in recent ads.

Twelve pages in the dataset purported to be community pages for French “patriots” or “African diasporas” in France, in addition to one page supporting the French army. Multiple pages seemingly used AI-generated logos featuring patriotic French imagery or illustrating alleged African community pages. According to the transparency data for the group of pages, the operators are based out of Burkina-Faso (3), Benin (2), Mali (2), Senegal (2), Gabon (2) and Chad (1). Three pages had hidden locations.

In order to avoid de-platforming, sponsored ads and posts containing political content often hyphenated terms, such as “War,” “Macron,” “Putin,” or “Zelensky.” The images used in the ads and posts were often altered; text appears to have been manually erased, and the eyes of the political figures targeted in the images were darkened in a likely attempt to evade facial recognition tools. One of the pages, named “Les maghrébiens en France” (Maghrebis in France), also contained a typographic error, writing “maghrébiens” instead of the correct “maghrébins;” this could be interpreted as an intentional action to avoid deplatforming.

The oldest page in the network, “Actualités et Infos en Afrique” (News and information in Africa), posted misleading content alleging foreign influence in last April’s Senegalese election. An April 2024 article by AssoBlog Mali, a local fact-checking organization, reported that the page posted an AI-generated recording purporting to be a conversation between two people during the Senegalese presidential election. In the recording, one of the speakers challenges the victory of President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and is allegedly recorded saying, “for us it is important that Amadou Ba win [the election],” and threatening the other speaker with “economic consequences.”

While the DFRLab could not independently verify this audio, the recording features a voice filter which raises questions about its authenticity. The recording reportedly appeared on other Facebook pages and was featured in an article by the news outlet SeneNews that exploited it to further an unverified claim that France had “[attempted] to influence the outcome of the elections in Senegal […].” SeneNews was previously reported on by the Center for Countering Disinformation for publishing sensationalist claims based on unverified video footage.

Other posts on Actualités et Infos en Afrique claimed that France had interfered with Guinea’s elections in favor of interim president Mamady Doumbouya. One post used a satirical cartoon depicting French President Emmanuel Macron coming to “rescue” Doumbouya against the domestic opposition.

The page was originally named “Regional news in France” and appears to have been repurposed and rebranded as “Actualités et Infos en Afrique” in February 2024. In its first sponsored ad in 2022, it claimed that “nine women [had] filed a formal complaint against Eric Zemmour,” a French far-right politician. Additionally, in 2023, the page Tout sur l’Afrique accused France of “delivering 50 million dollars via a private flight” to allegedly finance the electoral campaign of Malagasy businessman and presidential counsel Mamy Ravatomanga.

In multiple instances, ads targeted France’s June 2024 European parliament elections, first reported on by Alliance4Europe, with content defaming Macron, former majority candidate Valérie Hayer, and European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen. The ads reused material from the French far-right party Rassemblement National.

According to the Meta Ad Library, the pages “Patriotes de France” (Patriots of France) and “Les Actualités d’aujourd’hui  en France” (Today’s news in France) spent €2,848 on sponsored posts in France. In Patriotes de France’s case, the payer and beneficiary information points to another page in the network that supports the French military. Les Actualités d’aujourd’hui en France also sponsored an ad that reportedly targeted the Francophone population in Algeria.

Between April 8 to May 8, twelve of the network’s pages posted ads targeting President Macron for hinting at a potential deployment of French troops to Ukraine. Six pages of that subset notably spread the claim that France would send “migrants, Arabs and the homeless” to fight in the war in Ukraine. Multiple pages  spread unfounded rumors using similar material, accusing French authorities of introducing a “migrants’ mobilization.”

The pages “La France Fière,” “La France Libre,” “Génération des Patriotes,” “Ma Patrie Réveille-Toi,” “La Voie du Peuple Français,” and “Diasporas Africaines en France” all began running similar ads on April 8. The ads spread false allegations that France would send African migrants and homeless people to fight in the war in Ukraine. The DFRLab identified at least twenty-three ads spreading this narrative.

In one instance, two pages posted a screen capture of a purported article by news outlet Seneweb.com that stated, “Senegalese nationals recount how French security forces tried to forcibly mobilize them to participate in operations in Ukraine.” The article presents the presumably false testimony of a Senegalese immigrant in France who claims that French forces attempted to send them to the frontline. The DFRLab, while investigating this ad, found no evidence of this article’s existence. However, we identified a Seneweb article with an identical publishing timestamp, to the second, as that of the alleged article in the ad, raising suspicions of image manipulation.

In another instance, at least four pages posted seven ads with images of an alleged demonstration of Africans against “Macron’s mobilization” in Paris, without specifying their country of origin. Nearly ten days later, the images appeared in an article posted by Francophone news outlet PressAfrik. The DFRLab found no record or evidence of this demonstration taking place.

Additionally, the photos appear to be staged, as no protest seems to be happening in the background and visual analysis of the photographs shows that various protestors are holding identical signs reading “I will not fight for Ukraine,” “Africans are against Macron’s mobilization,” and “Africans are not cannon fodder for Macron’s ambitions.” Additionally, geolocating the photos reveals the protest followed a tourist-centric route in Paris from Plazza David Ben Gurion to the Palais Garnier and the Eiffel Tower quarter, casting doubt on the authenticity of the protest.

Investigating the payment data for the ads posted by La France Fière, the DFRLab identified a Senegal-based page targeting the Central African Republic (CAR), titled “RCA Aujourd’hui” (CAR Today), which engages in similar posting tactics and ad targeting. This information highlights a financial connection between the two pages and an expansion of the network into West Africa.

The DFRLab found evidence of amplification of pro-Wagner and pro-Russia content on four pages in the network. “RCA aujourd’hui“(CAR Today) appears to be part of an Africa-focused subset that includes “Actualités et Infos en Afrique,” “Tout sur l’Afrique” (All about Africa),” and “Mouvement pour une Afrique libre” (Movement for a free Africa). Contrary to the other pages, these had not been de-platformed at the time of writing and most often posted links with photos instead of ads. The photos often contained similar visuals to the deplatformed pages, spreading narratives against the West, France, and the UN’s Mission to the Central African Republic (MINUSCA). Other posts aimed to boost pro-Russian narratives in the region, as well as the Alliance of Sahel States, often abbreviated as AES in French, after Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso left the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

The DFRLab collected 107 posts from three of the pages that showed the network spread narratives concerning France, Niger, and the West, spread anti-UN content, and employed similar visual evasion techniques as the other twelve deplatformed pages.

According to Meta’s monitoring platform CrowdTangle, Actualités et infos en Afrique laid dormant until April 2024, with surges in posting targeting the Senegalese presidential elections and France’s involvement in West Africa. The three other pages posted consistently throughout 2023, spreading anti-France, anti-UN, and pro-Russia content.

Despite being French-language pages, RCA en Afrique, Tout sur l’Afrique, and Mouvement pour une Afrique libre all posted nearly identical posts, amplifying the same narratives. The DFRLab identified 107 posts spread between November 2022 and July 2024 that shared unverified claims accusing France of sending illegal weapons to CAR and MINUSCA blue helmets of “[interfering] with FACA by supporting the militants with arms, ammunition and intelligence information in exchange for gold.”

Multiple posts about Senegal accused France of interfering with security matters in the country and exhorting the newly elected president, Diomaye Faye, to join the AES and leave ECOWAS.

Actualités et Infos en Afrique’s Facebook videos also contained watermarks and QR codes for RT en Français and Sputnik Afrique.

Tout sur l’Afrique posted anti-French content throughout 2023 and in the months before the coup in Niger, spreading narratives that pushed for the removal of French military bases and European Union troops in Niamey. Meta Ad Library data also showed that Mouvement pour une Afrique libre first ran a sponsored post in September 2023, following the military coup in Niger led by General Abdourahamane Tchiani. The ad included a Russia Today video clip about the coup reporting on the withdrawal of French troops located in Niger.

The caption also accused France of interfering in the positive life of Niger, stating, “The French in Niger think they are at home and do not want to leave the country! The government and the people have asked the French to leave their territory and they must submit to the sovereign choice of Niger. France tells us that our new government is not legitimate, but we are the ones who chose it and we accept our choice! Our government is therefore democratic and legitimate.”

Additionally, a March 2023 post warned users that “France will do everything to influence you with its propaganda.” Similar claims appeared more recently on two pages in the network, with video posts claiming that “the West is leading an unprecedented media war against members of the Alliance of Sahelian States, notably Burkina-Faso.”

Finally, the pages also ran posts that spread pro-Russian and pro-Wagner content. The DFRLab identified two ads that promoted the actions of the Russian House in Bangui, CAR, and its leader Dmitry Sytyti. Sytyi is a Russian operative based in CAR who was found to have participated in Russia’s covert activity throughout West Africa. Despite Wagner’s disbandment following the reported death of its financier, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a new post emerged on Mouvement pour une Afrique libre, featuring Sytyi portrayed as Jesus Christ.

In addition, the DFRLab found various ads that promoted Russia’s action in CAR. The ads spread positive messages about Russia’s security operations in the region and the disarmament of anti-Balaka forces, who were part of the armed factions that have participated in CAR’s civil war since 2012.

Valentin Châtelet, “Pro-Russian Facebook pages spread anti-French, anti-UN content in West Africa,” Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), August 6, 2024, https://dfrlab.org/2024/08/06/russia-fb-france-un-minusca/.