"Russian Houses" in Africa Lure Recruits for Ukraine War

 Euro News posted on 18 June 2026 an article titled "Moscow Uses 'Russian Houses' in Africa to Lure Recruits into War in Ukraine, Investigation Shows" by Sasha Vakulina and Aleksandar Brezar.

Moscow is operating or opening "Russian Houses" in at least 22 African countries as part of its strategy to consolidate its influence on the continent.  The centers screen Soviet and Russian films, often on patriotic themes, and distribute ideologically vetted literature.  They also teach the Russian language and coach young people on how to move to Russia as students or workers.  

Ukraine's military intelligence has done an investigation that identifies Russian Houses as key hubs for recruiting Africans to go to Russia where they eventually end up on the front lines of the war against Ukraine.  Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs reports that at least 2,965 citizens from 36 African countries have taken part in combat on Russia's side.  

Mali Exposes the Limits of Russia's Expeditionary Warfare Model

 The Robert Lansing Institute published on 11 May 2026 an analysis titled "Russia's Setback in Mali: Intelligence Failures, Strategic Limits, and the Failure of Moscow's Africa Project."

Russia's Africa Corps retreat from Kidal in Mali exposed Moscow's operational fragility and weakened the mythology of Russia's expeditionary effectiveness.  Russia relied too heavily on coercion without sufficient understanding of local ethnic, tribal, and political realities.

Mali demonstrates Russia may struggle to control large territories, defeat insurgencies, or maintain durable legitimacy.  It exposed the limits of Russia's expeditionary warfare model.   

Russia's Strategy in Africa

 The Forum for Research on Eastern Europe and Emerging Economies (Free Network) published in December 2025 a paper titled "Russia's New Strategy in Africa: Big Ambitions, Limited Gains" by Maria Perrotta Berlin, Stockholm Institute for Transition Economics, and Lev Lvovskiy, Belarusian Economic Research and Outreach Center.  

While Russia has intensified relations with a handful of African states, the overall involvement remains limited in scope and depth.  There has been a modest expansion of trade since 2022 and Russia's military cooperation agreements with African states have increased markedly in recent years.  

Voting patterns in the United Nations General Assembly suggest declining rather than increasing support for Russian positions.  Russia's new strategy may yield short-term geopolitical leverage but shows little sign of delivering durable economic or political gains.

Podcast on China's Relations with Africa

 New Books Network posted on 8 October 2025 a one hour and 43-minute podcast on "China's Relations with Africa: A New Era of Strategic Engagement."

Kanayo Anthony Nomeh, Florida International University, hosted the podcast with the authors of the book, Joshua Eisenman and me.  The podcast covers all aspects of the relationship between Africa and China, although the focus is on security and political issues.  

China Promotes Its Language and Culture in Africa

 Deutsche Welle published on 28 September 2025 an article titled "How China Promotes Its Language and Culture in Africa" by Martina Schwikowski.  

China's Confucius Institutes offer courses on Chinese culture and Mandarin language in 49 African countries.  There is some concern, however, that this instruction comes with an effort to propagate Chinese political values.  

China Propagates Its Global Governance Initiative Across Africa

 The China-Global South Project posted on 15 September 2025 a commentary titled "China Launches Coordinated Media Campaign to Promote New Global Governance Initiative in Africa" by Eric Olander.

Chinese state media and surrogates have launched a media campaign in Africa to promote China's Global Governance Initiative (GGI) across the continent.  The goal is to propagandize the GGI to the widest possible African audience.  

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has posted a "Concept Paper on the Global Governance Initiative."

Comment:  The GGI is part of China's effort to seize leadership, especially in the Global South, from the West of the basic guiding principles of governance.  

Proposed Head of US AFRICOM Appears before Senate

 The U.S. Department of Defense posted on 22 July 2025 a press release titled "China, Russia, Terrorist Networks Destabilizing Africa" by David Vergun.

Air Force Lt. General Dagvin R.M. Anderson, who is being considered as the new commander of U.S. Africa Command, appeared before the Senate Committe on Armed Services.  He expressed concerns that Chinese and Russian efforts to increase influence in Africa could threaten U,S. national security.

Kenya's The Star and China Daily Sign Content Sharing Agreement

 Kenya's The Star published on 17 July 2025 an article titled "The Star Signs Content Sharing Deal with China Daily Africa" by Eliud Kibii.

China Daily, which is controlled by the Communist Party of China, signed a deal with Kenya's The Star to share content.  Once a week, The Star with average daily circulation of 100,000 will include an insert prepared by China Daily.  The editorial director of The Star's parent company said, "China is a major geopolitical player, and we're glad to be part of telling its story in Africa."

China Won't Replace American Foreign Aid Program

 Foreign Policy published on 7 July 2025 a commentary titled "China Isn't Ready to Replace USAID" by Henry Tugendhat and James Palmer.

Now that the Trump administration has gutted the US foreign aid agency, some analysts have suggested China will fill the void.  This commentary correctly points out that China has little appetite to take on a foreign aid program as large as the one run by USAID.  In addition, China's domestic audience is probably even less supportive of foreign aid than the American public.

Comment:  China will, however, strategically replace American foreign aid programs where it can obtain maximum advantage and favorable publicity.  At relatively little cost to China, it will constantly remind developing countries that the United States is not a reliable partner.

China and Russia Work to Fill US Void in Africa

 The Washington Post published on 24 March 2025 an article titled "Trump's Global Funding Cuts Leave a Void in Africa for Rivals to Exploit" by Katharine Houreld and Robyn Dixon.

About one-quarter of the US foreign aid budget was devoted to Africa.  Russia and China have been expanding their influence in Africa and are now using the dismantlement of USAID to further increase their efforts while not adding meaningfully to their humanitarian commitments.  They are also stepping up their propaganda programs as the United States shuts down the Voice of America.  

Examples of Voice of America "Radical Propaganda." Really?

 The Washington Post published on 18 March 2025 an article titled "The White House's Flimsy Attack on Voice of America" by Glenn Kessler.

The Voice of America (VOA), which the Trump administration is in the process of dismantling, broadcasts in almost 50 languages to 360 million people around the world.  Inevitably, there will be an occasional statement out of the hundreds of thousands each year that should have been handled with greater care. 

In justification of dismantling the VOA and firing its employees, the White House issued a statement citing 10 examples of alleged "radical propaganda" announced by VOA over the past 5 years.  The Washington Post "fact checker" looked at each one and concluded the charge was either inaccurate or significantly lacking in context.   

Marketing Russia and Putin in Africa

 The Washington Post published on 1 December 2024 an article titled "Inside the Effort to Market Russia and Putin to Africans" by Rachel Chason.

The article focuses on soft power efforts in Burkina Faso by murky organizations such as the African Initiative to propagandize the role of Russia and the personality of Vladimir Putin.  The article suggests the Russians are having considerable success.  

China's Relations with Africa: A New Era of Strategic Engagement

 The March 2024 issue of The Journal of Modern African Studies published a review by Padraig Carmody of our book, China's Relations with Africa: A New Era of Strategic Engagement.  

Russia's Expansion in Africa (in French)

 The International Crisis Group (ICG) posted on 28 June 2024 a 37-minute podcast titled "Russia's Expansion in Africa" with Tatiana Smirnova, University of Sherbrooke in Montreal, and Maxime Audinet, French Institute for Strategic Research at the Military School (IRSEM).  

The discussion focuses on the Wagner Group, which remains one of the main tools for military cooperation between Moscow and African countries, especially francophone nations in the Sahel region.  The two guests also discuss the information campaigns that the Kremlin is conducting to gain influence and discredit the West.  

How China Presses Its Governance Model on the Global South

 The Atlantic Council published on 13 June 2024 an analysis titled "A Global South with Chinese Characteristics" by Niva Yau.  

China has embarked on a steadily expanding mission to promote its political system alongside its economic engagement across the Global South.  Even as China's economic growth has slowed significantly and its political system has grown more repressive under Xi Jinping, the number of countries welcoming Chinese governance lessons continues to grow, enhancing Beijing's global influence.  This has significant implications for the future of democracy, the protection of individual rights, and the nature of the global order.

One way that Beijing promotes authoritarian governance is through training programs for foreign government officials on Chinese governance practices.  This analysis investigates a new dataset of Chinese government files on such training, revealing how China uses these sessions to directly promote ideas and practices that marry economics and politics to make a case for its authoritarian capitalism model.  The analysis outlines the content Beijing teaches foreign officials and the anticipated benefits to Beijing from these programs.  It also explains how these initiatives fit into China's broader ambitions to undermine the liberal democratic norms that currently underpin the global order.  

China's Strategy to Shape Africa's Media Space

 The Africa Center for Strategic Studies published on 16 April 2024 an analysis titled "China's Strategy to Shape Africa's Media Space" by Paul Nantulya.

The author describes a global strategy by the Communist Party of China (CPC) to gain influence in developing countries by shaping their information environments.  This raises concerns about the effect that China's heavy media penetration is having on shaping public perceptions in ways that promote Chinese interests even when they undermine African citizen interests.  

Thousands of African journalists participate annually in media exchanges in China.  Money is the key; Chinese media entities support many African media houses struggling with poor equipment, low salaries, and tight budgets.  Nevertheless, the author concludes the effectiveness of Chinese messaging is mixed.  

The Communist Party of China's Political Leadership School in Tanzania

 The Africa Center for Strategic Studies published on 7 November 2023 a paper titled "China's First Political School in Africa" by Paul Nantulya.  

The Communist Party of China financed and has become part of the Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leadership School in Kibaha, Tanzania. Other partners in the school are the ruling political parties in Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe.  All of these ruling parties have held power without interruption since independence, although they have held regular elections.  

This is the first political leadership school that the CPC has built overseas.  The six African political parties are focused on supporting each other to preserve their rule.  The CPC. which remains deeply involved with the training program, sees the school as an opportunity to advance China's interests and isolate its adversaries.  

China's Xinhua Urges Its Kenyan Counterpart to Join Forces to Counter Fake News

 The Kenya News Agency published on 3 October 2023 an article titled "Kenya-China News Ready to Counter Fake News" by Joseph Kamolo.

The China branch in Nairobi of the Xinhua News Agency  invited its Kenyan counterpart, the Kenya News Agency, to spearhead countering fake news and propaganda "by reporting facts based on research to build a true image of the two nations that were victims of western colonial masters."  

Kenyan President William Ruto is due to visit China at the end of the year when the two countries are expected to renew agreements for news and information exchanges.

The New Cold War in Africa

 Foreign Affairs published on 20 September 2023 an article titled "Why the New Cold War Will Split Africa" by Brett L. Carter.

The second cold war is intensifying Africa's democratic recession.  Beijing and its junior partner Russia are strengthening Africa's dictatorships and facilitating backsliding in democracies.  Although the short-term dynamics favor China and Russia as partners for African countries, the long-term dynamics favor the United States.

The Battle for Control of the Wagner Group Empire

 The New York Times published on 8 September 2023 an article titled "After Prigozhin's Death, A High-Stakes Scramble for His Empire" by Anton Troianovski, Declan Walsh, Eric Schmitt, Vivian Yee, and Julian E. Barnes.

The Wagner Group under Yevgeniy Prigozhin had Russia's most effective fighting force in Ukraine, an online "troll farm" that was instrumental in undercutting democratic institutions around the world, and mercenaries in Africa and Syria that propped up autocrats and helped increase Russian influence.

Two Russian intelligence services, the foreign intelligence service (SVR) and military intelligence agency (GRU), are vying to take over parts of the Wagner operation.  The SVR is looking to assume control of the propaganda and disinformation component and the GRU the mercenary operation.