US-funded Centre Accuses Russia of Seeking to Undermine Democracy in Nigeria, 27 Other Nations

SAINT PETERSBURG, RUSSIA - JULY 28: (RUSSIA OUT) Russian President Vladimir Putin (C) shakes hands with President of Burkina Faso Ibrahim Traore (L) during a group photo with delegation's leaders of the Second Summit Economic And Humanitarian Forum Russia Africa, on July 28, 2023, in Saint Petersburg, Russia. 17 African leaders are participating in the Russia-African Summit. (Photo by Contributor/Getty Images)

SAINT PETERSBURG, RUSSIA - JULY 28: (RUSSIA OUT) Russian President Vladimir Putin (C) shakes hands with President of Burkina Faso Ibrahim Traore (L) during a group photo with delegation's leaders of the Second Summit Economic And Humanitarian Forum Russia Africa, on July 28, 2023, in Saint Petersburg, Russia. 17 African leaders are participating in the Russia-African Summit. (Photo by Contributor/Getty Images)

•Says country attempted to hijack last round of protests in Nigeria  

•Avers Russia, China, Iran deploying disinformation, election interference, others  

•Puts number of displaced Africans at 45 million

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Africa Center for Strategic Studies, an academic institution within the US Department of Defence,  established and funded by the American Congress, has accused Russia of attempting to undermine democracy in Nigeria and at least 27 other countries in Africa.

Specifically, the centre established in 1999, in a new report titled: “Africa’s 2024 Security Trends in 10 Graphics”, fingered Russia in the recent anti-government protests in Nigeria, saying it sought to undermine the people’s trust in the Nigerian government.

The Africa Center says its mandate is to study security issues relating to Africa and serve as a forum for bilateral and multilateral research, communication, training, and exchange of ideas involving military and civilian participants.

Describing Russia, China and Iran as ‘foreign authoritarian actors’, the report added that these countries have facilitated the democratic backsliding witnessed in Africa in recent years.

“Through disinformation, direct election interference, deployment of mercenaries, support for extra-constitutional seizures of power, and undermining of the United Nations, these foreign actors have attempted to prop up undemocratic authorities and normalise authoritarianism while paralysing popular sovereignty as a means of expanding their influence in Africa.

“Russia has sought to undercut democracy in at least 28 African countries spanning the continent. Information manipulation and political interference have been Russia’s most frequently used methods.

“These tools have likewise been deployed in Nigeria and Kenya in an attempt to hijack protests to undermine trust in government and democracy,” the report noted.

Besides, it said that China had become more active in promoting its dominant party model in Africa in recent years, advancing norms on the ‘subservient’ role of the state, media, and military to the party.

The US group noted that this trend was underscored by the opening of China’s first political school in Africa, expanded training for African party leaders, and an effort to shape Africa’s media environments.

“There has been a fourfold increase in disinformation campaigns, otherwise known as Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI)) targeting Africa since 2022. These campaigns continued to proliferate throughout 2024, particularly in Africa’s conflict zones. West Africa has emerged as the continent’s disinformation epicenter.

“Aided in their power grabs by FIMI, military juntas in the Sahel have become laboratories for Russia’s disinformation toolkit, which has paired with the juntas’ persecution of the media to turn the region into a highly malleable information environment.

“Russian FIMI covertly tilts national debates in targeted countries such as South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, while the Kremlin-linked African Initiative has recruited local intermediaries to spread conspiracies about public health across the continent,” the centre said in the document.

It added that FIMI,  sponsored by the Chinese Communist Party has leveraged its opaque control of African media to produce skewed and misleading coverage that is then amplified by Chinese disinformation campaigns.

“African democratic elections continued to be prime targets of disinformation campaigns, with countries like South Africa and Ghana facing an onslaught of false and misleading messaging by external actors.

“ However, both countries took the threat seriously and began developing layers of resiliency to detect, analyse, and effectively alert and empower citizens and key stakeholders, including the media, in the face of these campaigns,” the US centre added.

Africa’s persisting conflicts are compounding crises of governance on the continent, it stressed, straining already fragile regions and opening the door to foreign exploitation through proxy forces, resource trafficking, and information manipulation.

According to the Africa Centre report, a graphical snapshot of Africa’s security trends in 2024 illustrates the compounding effects of unresolved conflict, violent extremist insurgencies, external authoritarian actors vying for influence, and natural disasters.

Collectively, it noted that these trends highlight the escalating strains on the coping capacities of affected countries and regions—and the resulting widening gap between areas of stability and instability.

Besides, the group pointed out that the spillover from this escalation in the Sahelian countries is being felt in coastal West Africa where there have been over 500 violent extremist events in or within 50km of their borders in 2024,  compared to just over 50 such events in 2020.

“The number of Africans forcibly displaced has risen for the 13th year in a row—to over 45 million people. This figure represents a 14 per cent increase from the previous year. 14 of the top 15 countries in total number of forcibly displaced populations are in conflict.

“With 3 per cent of its total population forcibly displaced, Africa has both a larger share and absolute number of forcibly displaced people than any other major region in the world.

“There has been a doubling in the forcibly displaced population in Africa since 2018. Three-quarters of these people—34.5 million—are internally displaced. Africa now hosts more than 48 per cent of the world’s internally displaced people,” the report added.

It added that acute food insecurity affected 163 million Africans in 2024, over one-tenth of the continent’s population. This total, it disclosed, is nearly triple the number of five years ago, highlighting the rapid escalation in Africa’s food emergency.

“80 per cent of Africans facing acute food insecurity live in countries experiencing conflict with famine, having been confirmed in Sudan and reported in parts of South Sudan and Mali.

“While Nigeria, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo are the countries with the greatest number of people confronting acute food insecurity—each with over 20 million people impacted—23 out of Africa’s 54 countries have at least 10 per cent of their populations facing acute food insecurity,” the document stated.

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