General Langley warned that misinformation and disinformation campaigns by Russia had distorted the US's efforts to align with African countries.
The Commander of the United States’ Africa Command, U.S. Marine Corps General, Michael Langley, has accused the Russian government of spreading misinformation to stop his team from eliminating terrorism in Africa.
Commander Langley said this during his recent interview with State Africa Regional Media Hub which was published in an official website of the US Department of State.
In his words, General Langley expressed concern about the growing influence of Russia in Africa, particularly in the AFRICOM Area of Responsibility (AOR).
He noted that the US does not force African partners to choose between security partners, but instead offers a value proposition and seeks to work together to achieve shared objectives.
However, General Langley warned that misinformation and disinformation campaigns by Russia had distorted the US's efforts to align with African countries.
He cited examples of Russian disinformation in the Sahel region, where false ideologies had been spread to destabilise civil society and militaries.
He said, “When we have engaged with our African partners, we don’t give them an ultimatum of who to choose for a security partner. We have a value proposition going forward, but also, we want a complete understanding, and we want them to have – our partners to have – a complete understanding of our initiatives and how we can work together to achieve shared objectives.
“Now, that being said, I know that since 2022 when I took command, a lot of my efforts to be able to come in alignment with some of these countries on how we’re going to approach the challenges has been distorted through misinformation or disinformation, trying to state that – untruths of what U.S. AFRICOM was trying to do with a particular country. Misinformation and disinformation has stoked a lot of instability across civil society and across some of these militaries. For example, across the Sahel.
“You know, we were there, as far as a shared objective to fight terrorism, but then, as you well see, that across the region the Russian Federation had activities in the information space to be able to effect false-type ideologies in civil society as far as the clear intent of what AFRICOM was trying to do to fight terrorism with them, collectively.
“So, I’d say that, yeah, from the PRC across – excuse me, far as the Russian Federation across the Sahel, it’s been destabilising – destabilising from Central African Republic all the way into Libya and across the Sahel. Some of those false ideologies, disinformation, have been destabilising across these countries. And the PRC – the PRC, they have been known to put out misinformation and disinformation across the continent as well.”