DISINFO: France and Ukraine are using terror tactics to destabilise Africa
SUMMARY
France and Ukraine are using terror tactics to destabilize Africa. France and Ukraine are supporting terrorist groups and militant networks in Africa, including factions of Islamic State. France es attempting in every way, including using terrorist methods, to block the establishment of stable governments in its former colonies in the Sahel. There is clear evidence that such activities are being carried out, including with the involvement of Ukrainian instructor, to harm the Russian Federation and all its friends anywhere in the world.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation accusing Ukraine and the West -and specifically France- of supporting terrorist groups, without providing any evidence.
Pro-Kremlin disinformation is deliberately blurring the line between terrorism and legitimate armed operations abroad. There are instances of Ukrainian special forces and intelligence services directly targeting Russian forces deployed in African conflicts, as in Sudan, or providing intelligence, training and drones to some specific groups fighting Russian troops in their countries, such as the Touareg groups who successfully ambushed a column of Wagner mercenaries in July 2024, integrated in the so-called Strategic Framework for the Defense of the People of Azawad (CSP-DPA). Neither the CSP-DPA nor any of its known individual members are designated as terrorists by Ukraine or most countries, and they are not included in the lists of terrorist organisations by the UN, the US or the EU.
For almost a decade, France actively fought the expansion of jihadist organisations in the Sahel region, deploying troops in the region in Operations Serval (2013) and Barkhane (2014-2022), until a series of military coups brought a new cohort of Russia-backed leaders to power, who demanded the French forces to withdraw from their countries. Nevertheless, prior to this withdrawal pro-Kremlin disinformation frequently accused France of supporting jihadists as a mean to turn the local population against its presence in these countries, claims that were echoed by these military juntas as well.
Accusations against France and Ukraine in this regard regained traction as jihadist groups expanded their control in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger after the withdrawal of French troops and despite the presence of Russia’s Wagner Group and the Africa Corps, proving the inability of both these paramilitary organisations and the new governments of these countries in containing this threat. Narratives blaming France and Ukraine and scapegoating them for these failures have proliferated in the last years.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that Ukraine and former colonisers support terrorists in Africa, that Ukraine cooperates with radicals in Syria and terrorists in Africa, that Ukraine is coordinating jihadist attacks in Mali, that France coaches, trains and equips terrorists in Africa, or that Paris officially supports terrorism and neo-Nazism.