Brief-format session of the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russia, Wednesday, October 23, 2024. | Picture credit score: AP
Social media in West Africa is abuzz with posts selling a “brighter future” in partnership with non-Western powers, particularly these belonging to the rising BRICS economies assembly in Russia this week.
Speak of a “new world order” or a “multipolar world” is frequent on dozens of Fb pages analyzed by AFP within the Sahel international locations of West Africa, most with pro-Russian and a few pro-Chinese language content material.
The unique BRICS bloc (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) admitted Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Ethiopia to the group final yr.
A Fb group of 16,000 folks created in March 2023 is known as “BRICS+Africa for a multipolar world,” proclaiming in its description: “The multipolar world joins Africa, the continent of the longer term.”
Posts present Russian President Vladimir Putin welcoming UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan or hailing the reported deployment of North Korean troopers to help Russia in Ukraine.
A lot of the pages are run by folks from Niger, Burkina Faso or Mali.
World majority
The discuss echoes Moscow’s “basic story that opposes the ‘international majority’ to the ‘Western minority,'” mentioned Maxime Audinet, a researcher on the French Protection Ministry’s IRSEM suppose tank.
“Criticizing the types of dependency imposed by the ‘West’ and selling a ‘new world order’ by organizations like BRICS and the G20 – for which Russia needs to be spokesperson – is a part of a real technique to court docket the worldwide South,” he mentioned. Mr. Audinet instructed AFP.
The plan was specified by a significant report final yr by Russian political theorist Sergey Karaganov, reshaping Moscow’s international coverage and emphasizing Africa as an area to compete fiercely with Western powers.
A number of Sahel international locations at the moment are ruled by army junta which have sought nearer ties with Moscow.
“Criticism of the French presence (within the Sahel) has been very helpful for years, however now that France is gone the narrative is altering,” Audinet mentioned.
The affect operations of the Wagner group, which has sought to affect public opinion in West Africa since 2018, have been taken over for the reason that loss of life of the mercenary group’s founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin.
They’re now a part of a press company referred to as the “Africa Initiative”, which a number of specialists say is headed by a former member of Russian intelligence.
Extra open help for Russia comes from figures similar to former Ivorian minister Ahoua Don Mello, vice chairman of the “BRICS Worldwide Alliance for Strategic Initiatives.”
It promotes a pan-Africanism liberated from colonial domination and a brand new shared forex to exchange the present CFA franc which has ties to Paris.
Sharing speaking factors
Chinese language Fb is suffering from posts highlighting Beijing’s tens of billions of {dollars} in investments in Africa. French-language choices from Chinese language state media similar to Xinhua and RCI have primarily focused African audiences over the previous decade.
They’re willingly “proping up Russian propaganda,” “sharing speaking factors” with shops like Russia At present and Sputnik, mentioned Selma Mihoubi of Paris’ Sorbonne College.
Some content material is solely copied and pasted between Chinese language and Russian media beneath content-sharing agreements between the 2 nations.
“Moscow and Beijing don’t align on all the things, and even compete with one another in Africa, however there’s a actual willingness to talk with one voice on points such because the ‘new world order,'” Mihoubi mentioned.
A number of the West African boards additionally use content material to burnish their picture.
In Burkina Faso “a number of disinformation campaigns are being carried out on the native stage, with out the Russians initiating them,” says a disinformation knowledgeable within the area, who speaks on situation of anonymity.
In July, dozens of accounts launched a coordinated marketing campaign spreading false studies that Burkinabé army chief Ibrahim Traore had joined the BRICS.
Revealed – October 24, 2024 10:46 am IST