The political landscape in West Africa has been undergoing dramatic changes since 2020, marked by a series of coups that have reshaped governance in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Niger and Gabon. This trend of political upheaval extends to nearby Central African countries like Sudan and Chad, with visible signs of instability now emerging in Cameroon and Sierra Leone.
Global powers, former colonial states and regional bodies have been grappling with the fallout from these coups, each employing varied strategies to navigate and stabilize the unfolding crisis.
Meanwhile, the primary focus of fact-checkers in the region has shifted to accurately informing the public about the coups and actively correcting divisive falsehoods that often go viral.
The ousting of President Mohamed Bazoum of Niger on July 26 illustrates a troubling trend of misinformation following political turmoil. In this case, baseless claims quickly spread online, challenging the narrative of the coup. While influential nations like the United States deliberated over formally recognizing Bazoum’s ousting as a coup, fact-checkers were immersed in correcting inaccuracies amid the chaos.
A striking case involved a video on X, formerly Twitter, claiming to show a Nigerien minister in tears after being summoned by coup leaders regarding national finances. This video, which quickly went viral and was shared by prominent figures across West Africa and beyond, was later debunked by Africa Check, an IFCN signatory. It actually dates back to early 2021 and depicts a different Nigerien minister.
In another instance, a Facebook page named “Amba Lion” posted a claim on Aug.15. It alleged, “Niger raised the Nigerian Embassy to ashes after burning down France’s embassy two weeks ago,” and was accompanied by a video of a burning building. The page, followed by more than 5,000 users, suggested this was footage of the embassy’s destruction.
Fact-checkers at Full Fact, Africa Check and Reuters quickly debunked the video, revealing it showed an attack at a Niger party headquarters, not the French embassy.
Several other false claims, including one that says Nigeria’s army crossed into Niger, were debunked by Africa Check.
As unsubstantiated claims surrounding the coup in Niger began spreading beyond its borders, Congo Check, a signatory from DRC, was one of the fact-checking organizations that stepped in. In mid-August 2023, they showed that a widely circulated Facebook claim that Cote d’Ivoire was preparing to attack Niger using helicopters was actually based on an outdated image.
The coups in West Africa, such as the one in Niger, are widely attributed to factors like eroding democracy, terror-related insecurities, and economic challenges that impact the continent’s fast-growing population. Yet, there are growing concerns that these unconstitutional changes in government could be catalysts for spreading disinformation, risking further descent of the region into chaos.
Oumarou Brah Souleymane, a fact-checker working with PesaCheck in Niger, noted a surge in false information about Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso in the recent past.
“Misinformation around a dispute between Niger and (the regional block) the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and between Niger and France were common,” Souleymane said, adding that other hotbeds of misinformation included debates about the presence of French and Russian soldiers in the region, rumored plans for an ECOWAS military intervention, and distorted facts about the deposed president.
“The difficulties were mainly related to accessing a source to obtain information and connecting the dots to get the work done on time,” he said.
More African fact-checkers are now intensifying their efforts to tackle disinformation during coups, a shift from their traditional focus on elections and conflicts.
Edouard Samboe, a fact-checker in Burkina Faso, which underwent a coup in 2022, said, “In the past, fact-checking works were focused on false information that spread during elections and election campaigns. But since the arrival of these recent coups, we are working more on false information linked to the coups and Russia’s influence in the Sahel region.”
He added: “The coups have revealed the importance of Russia’s influence networks in the Sahel, and their capacity to produce false information. This is characterized by the production of images, photos, videos and mass manipulation (techniques) used in order to make people pro-Russian and anti-Western.”
Samboe stressed that getting official sources of information has proved to be the biggest challenge in conducting fact-checking. “In these kinds of situations, no one wants to talk,” he said, adding there are also tendencies to see fact-checkers as “against the system.”
The forceful takeovers of governments in the region have prompted aid withdrawal and troop recalls by international partners. These events have also fueled a rise in disinformation, spread in the form of doctored images, manipulated audio and outrightly false texts.
“One has to understand that there are too many important geopolitical and strategic interests, and fact-checkers have a crucial role to play,” Samboe said, emphasizing the need for intensified efforts to counter disinformation in nations that have recently witnessed government overthrows.
