By Doussouba Konaté

Instability in the Sahel is driven by disinformation. Alongside the growing militancy on the ground, there is a concurrent information war being fought to win the support of citizens. Jihadist groups spread anti-government and anti-foreign messages that find fertile ground in a region where governance has always been weak. Meanwhile, it is well known that state actors- primarily Russia- push disinformation in the region in order to undermine Western efforts to support democracy and good governance.

This includes highly sophisticated efforts, derived from military psychological operations, to target and influence key sections of the population- and it is working. Last year, for example, hundreds of people rallied with Russian flags in Bamako. At the same time, Russia is consolidating its influence among power-holders through stepping up its military support for the Malian Junta since the most recent coup. Equally, PR firms continue to manipulate elections, including in Niger most recently, posing difficult problems in a part of Africa where democracy is already very weak and the transition from military to civilian rule is already extremely challenging.

Some progress has been made- last year, Facebook closed down two Russian linked networks of troll accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency (IRA) which sought to “sway public opinion” in the Sahel through paying locals to post on Russia’s behalf. But the governments of Sahelian countries have very little capacity to meaningfully engage in information warfare, and Western governments are wary of being pulled into a battle of ideas using similar tactics to those deployed by authoritarian regimes. Where this has been tried- by the French for example- the approach has been counter-productive.

Bolstering democracy is a key policy priority for the United States as demonstrated in the Summit for Democracy process. Unfortunately the S4D, as it is known, has included only one Sahelian country (Niger) despite their critical importance to US security and stability, as recently pointed out by Deputy Assistant Secretary Chidi Blyden in a testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. As the 2nd Summit for Democracy approaches, now is the time to put in place efforts to better understand and counter disinformation in the Sahel; and provide citizens with the validated information they need to bolster trust, participation and better governance from the bottom-up.

We cannot simply mirror Russian information warfare tactics. These are too obviously subjective and are not engaging citizens in meaningful ways through the people and media they trust. Sustainable change is possible not through piecemeal efforts to push alternative narratives but by generating local citizen, government and media buy-in to understandings of the issues and their roles in possible solutions. This kind of approach has four key components.

First, data collection. Part of the problem is that very few policymakers in the West truly understand how people consume information and internalize ideas in the Sahel; or how citizens might be feeling about critical issues such as justice or governance. Our efforts to collect rumors, counter mis-information and track disinformation in Mali through Civic Action Teams have indicated that the public is not sufficiently consulted on issues that affect them. Malians feel abandoned by the government due to a lack of communication on key issues (such as war, insecurity, corruption and so on). Most aid-driven data collection efforts are extractive with no effort to return to people and explain the changes that are being made. This undermines the feedback loops necessary to build trust over time.

Second, part of countering disinformation comes through precisely the opposite- crowding out untruths through spreading validated, clear and understandable information to which people can relate. There are plenty of examples of how this can be done from around the world; and from within the Sahel itself. In Mali, the way to reach people is with short, engaging voice notes in local languages through Whatsapp or the radio; or with infographics that are accessible for those less able to read. Elsewhere, such as Liberia, it includes town criers, who use megaphones while walking around communities to let people know what is going on.

Third, building relationships with and supporting the growth of legitimate news sources is essential. In the Sahel, media organizations have been undermined for years by a lack of revenue streams, inadequate management, poor standards, corruption, perverse donor relationships (including through which donors pay journalists to cover their events) and more. No wonder these organizations will publish what they are paid to put out and are not trusted by citizens. The US recently announced the creation of the International Fund for Public Interest Media and the Media Viability Accelerator- these efforts have to ensure fundamental changes that avoid the standard aid-driven media support efforts of the past which have not worked.

Finally, pushing social media companies to engage more seriously in the Sahel and other fragile parts of the world. While the number of social media users tends to be low in these kinds of places, they are growing rapidly. Here in Mali, for example, the use of Facebook has sky-rocketed over the past two years. By 2030, Africa’s projected number of internet users is expected to grow by 260% relative to 2017, and the World Bank has stated that it hopes to close Africa’s digital divide by the end of the decade. This means social media companies need to be ready to prioritize this issue, build creative local partnerships, allocate more time and capacity to monitoring activity in our region, enforce policies on these issues, close fake and bot accounts and more.

Russian efforts to undermine democracy and stability in the Sahel are multiplying rapidly- and the West is losing the information war as the fragile governments in the region pivot towards partners that are far less interested in participation, good governance and human rights. Preventing this shift requires deeper efforts to understand and engage citizens. The US government’s Global Engagement Center has developed significant expertise on these issues and the US-led Summit for Democracy has developed a Disinformation Cohort which is a step in the right direction. Even if our governments are not invited it is essential that we find more creative ways to engage around this issue.

Doussouba Konaté is the Director of Accountability Lab Mali. Follow the Lab @accountlab.

This article was originally published in Sahara Reporters. 

Kibo Ngowi