Burkina Faso Under Influence

This research note demonstrates that the Burkinabè informational ecosystem has been manipulated with strong informational pressure for a year on social media platforms. Several inauthentic and orchestrated campaigns aimed at users of Burkinabe social networks have been identified. The platform studied at this stage is Facebook, while WhatsApp, the most used messaging service in French-speaking Africa, remains the blind spot of OSINT research in terms of disinformation at this stage. AEOW believes that the highest volume of influencer actions take place on this messaging app.

The techniques identified in this study include:

• the production and dissemination of impactful videos via fake accounts or by relying them by highly followed political influencers
• micro-targeting or the use of Facebook advertising to deliver anti-Western messages to Burkinabè audiences
• Calls to demonstrate which are relayed via advertisements, copy-pasted messages, relay by recently created fake accounts on groups.
• Creation of networks of news pages to relay anti-Western messages, favorable to Russia and in favor of the Transitional government.

Par ailleurs, des actions coordonnées à partir de comptes non authentiques ont pu être détectées manuellement et font ressurgir un réseau bien connu des actions d’influence pro-russe démantelé en 2021 par Facebook: le réseau d’actifs numériques de l’ONG Aimons Notre Afrique dirigée par Harouna Douamba, une organisation financée par la Lobaye Invest – la société historique du groupe Wagner en Centrafrique – regroupés à présent au sein de la GPCI, le Group Panafricain pour le Commerce et l’Investissement, dirigé par la même personne.

In addition, coordinated actions from inauthentic accounts could be detected manually and resurrect a well-known network of pro-Russian influence actions dismantled in 2021 by Facebook: the digital asset network created by the NGO Aimons Notre Afrique headed by Harouna Douamba, an organization financed by Lobaye Invest – an historical Wagner Group’s company in CAR. These assets are now grouped together within the GPCI, the Pan-African Group for Trade and Investment (Group Panafricain pour le Commerce et l’Investissement), headed by the same person.

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