Umar works as an assistant in a provision store in Kano, Nigeria, where shelves brim with items kissed by the sun and dust. After secondary school, this was the only job available. Still, he barely makes ends meet these days as his spending skyrocketed due to inflation, which surged to over 34.19% amidst fuel price increases, among other economic hardships.
In August, the economic struggle culminated in a protest tagged #EndBadGovernance. Like many others, Umar saw this as an opportunity to demand change. “I wanted to share my grievances,” he said.
Four days into the protest that began on August 1st, something unexpected appeared—Russian flags waved by demonstrators in the northern cities of Kano, Jos, and Kaduna.
Umar was one of those who waved the flags. “I waved the flag,” he admits. He had been invited by a friend to a meeting in Hotoro, in Kano, where they were handed Russian flags and told that they symbolise freedom.
His friend, who was also arrested for waving the Russian flag, insisted it was the right thing to do at that time. The sight of Russian flags in West African protests is not new but it was the first of such in Nigeria. In the months preceding military coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, similar flags filled the streets.
Yet, one individual who benefited from this wave of discontent is Sani Abbas, a Kano-based TikTok influencer with over 100,000 followers.
“During the protest, I made a lot of money,” Abbas said. He told this reporter he was paid by a Telegram channel called “Africa Initiative.” Telegram, a widely used messaging platform in Nigeria, with approximately 54% of internet users aged 16 to 64 reporting usage as of the third quarter of 2022, played a pivotal role in organising and disseminating information during these protests.
Abbas posted videos calling for Russia’s intervention in Nigeria.
“We dropped pictures and videos about the protest on the channel and picked narratives to share online, especially on TikTok and Instagram.”
He added that the channel supplied influencers like him with talking points like “Putin please come and save Nigeria,” “The army is the answer for Nigeria” and urged them to spread these narratives across social media platforms using the hashtag #Zangazanga (a Hausa word for protest) and #putin, #rusiya (Hausa word for Russia in Hausa).
We tracked the accounts and narratives on TikTok that directly relate to Sani’s account, focusing on videos posted between August 5th and 11th. We identified 38 accounts that shared similar content promoting pro-Russian narratives and military takeovers. See the list below. See list
Analysing “Africa Initiative” Telegram channel
Telegram has become a medium for disinformation in Africa, with minimal content moderation allowing harmful narratives to spread unchecked. Channels like ‘Africa Initiative’ have been instrumental in promoting pro-Russian sentiments and calls for military intervention, directly influencing actions such as the display of Russian flags during Nigerian protests. This unregulated environment has positioned Telegram as a significant tool in the dissemination of foreign disinformation, impacting political sentiments and public behaviour across the continent.
Using Tgstat, a Telegram analysis tool, we accessed the channel ‘Africa Initiative,’ which describes itself as a ‘Russian information agency about events in Africa.’ The channel has versions in Arabic, French, English, Portuguese, and Spanish. It is filled with narratives about the Russia/Africa relationship and pro-coup posts that praise Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali. The channel also references its website: afrinz.ru.
The subscriber analysis data from Tgstat revealed that the channel was created in October 2023, with around 200 subscribers at that time. However, by the end of June 2024, just two months before the protests in Nigeria, the channel experienced consistent growth, reaching approximately 50,000 subscribers. This growth continued steadily throughout July, August, and September.
The table above illustrates how the ‘African Initiative’ channel attracts traffic from other Telegram channels. It includes the channel’s number of mentions, the total monthly reach of these mentions, and the increase in new subscribers for each specified month.
Another dataset indicated that during June, July, and August, the channel saw a significant increase in new participants and extensive reach. However, this growth sharply declined in September and October following the protests.
The average number of interactions also increased sporadically during the protests around July and August.
The screenshot shows an unusual increase in the number of interactions on the Africa Initiative Telegram channel during the protest.
The channel’s incoming and outgoing mentions indicate that it is connected to other pro-Russian disinformation channels related to Africa. For example, the U.S. Department of State has listed ‘Smile & Wave’ and ‘Africa Korps’ as Telegram channels organising and spreading ‘deadly’ disinformation in Africa.
The Africa Initiative channel was found to have regularly posted about the protests around the time the Russian flags appeared. In one instance, a post on the channel claimed that, through a ‘small OSINT analysis’ they conducted, they identified who was behind the protests in Nigeria, referring to Western politicians. The post suggested that poverty and political instability are becoming tools for Western ‘exporters of democracy.’ In another post, dated August 7, 2024, they labelled the protests as ‘anti-government rallies.’
A screenshot of a post from the Africa Initiative channel regarding the protests, in which the protests were labelled as ‘anti-government rallies
Yet, in another post, Africa Initiative referenced an unnamed TikTok user to have been sharing the Russian videos and flags on X and yet another unnamed “local resident” who allegedly told them that “The protesters don’t seem to be affiliated with any pro-Russian group. They just made amateur flags — this suggests that pro-Russian sentiments are developing organically.”
In another post, Africa Initiative referenced an unnamed TikTok user whom they alleged to be willingly sharing Russian videos and flags on his account. They also quoted a ‘resident’ who allegedly stated,
“The protesters don’t seem to be affiliated with any pro-Russian group. They just made amateur flags that suggest that pro-Russian sentiments are developing organically,” referring to the fact that the protesters were waving the flags naturally.
The above screenshot shows a post from Africa Initiative about the protest, which references an unknown “TikTok user” and “one local resident” saying the protesters waving Russian flags during the protest were organic.
Around the time the narrative of protesters waving Russian flags was prevalent, the Africa Initiative’s Rutube channel—a Russian equivalent of YouTube—was filled with videos of the protests.
Here’s a screenshot of the Africa Initiative Rutube channel, which is riddled with videos from the protest to the others found on TikTok.
To gain a deeper understanding of the channel’s discussions, we downloaded the chats and multimedia previously published there. Our findings revealed that the channel had been sharing pro-Russian content about the Nigerian protests even before the issue went viral online.
For instance, the following content was posted on the channel on August 4th, a day before Russian flags first appeared on the streets of Northern Nigeria.
A downloaded file document from the channel contains multiple pieces of content related to the protests in Nigeria. Especially as it relates to the waving of the Russian flags
For example, the content below was published on the channel on August 4th, a day before the flags began appearing on the streets of Northern Nigeria.
A screenshot of video files from the downloaded contents of the Telegram channel shows videos with similar pro-Russian narratives to those seen on TikTok, which were published on the channel earlier.
Telegram’s role in disseminating disinformation has grown steadily, particularly across Africa, where limited moderation allows narratives to spread unchecked. This environment enabled platforms like the ‘Africa Initiative’ channel to flourish, using tactics similar to those seen in other regional conflicts. In Mali and Burkina Faso, for instance, pro-Russian propaganda circulated widely on Telegram, echoing calls for military rule while portraying Russia as an ally against Western influence, as stated by the US Department of State.
Telegram’s minimal content moderation, emphasis on user privacy, and support for large public channels have made it a fertile ground for disinformation campaigns. These features allow actors like the ‘Africa Initiative’ to effectively disseminate pro-Russian narratives, as observed by the US Department of State Mali and Burkina Faso. The platform’s resistance to external regulation further complicates efforts to monitor and control such content.
On 25 August, two weeks after the protest in Nigeria, Pavel Durov, Telegram’s CEO, was arrested in Paris…
