MONDAY, APRIL 25 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A
and Mali have led pro-Russian
events.
An invitation to the March
rally in Ouagadougou was shared
by 18 watch-listed accounts,
based in seven countries, with
similar wording.
By the time Sawadogo arrived
at Revolution Square, only a cou-
ple dozen men had gathered.
Maybe he was early.
A few had draped Russian flags
over their shoulders like capes.
One wore a shirt featuring the
faces of the Burkinabe president
and Putin. With his new poncho
and cap, Sawadogo was the most
decked out.
“Everyone,” a protester shout-
ed. “Please hold your flags the
right way. Otherwise people
could mistake them for French.”
He reminded the group that both
nations have white, blue and red
stripes.
Another protester loudly told
people not to talk to journalists.
Sawadogo raised his flag.
“Down with France,” he yelled.
“Yes to Russia!”
He hadn’t been online much
that day. He indulges in scrolling
perhaps three times each week,
he said, which is how much data
he can typically afford. When
presented Code for Africa’s find-
ings about the Facebook page he
frequents — that it could belong
to a troll, and that it appeared to
have participated in coordinated
campaigns — Sawadogo
shrugged it off.
“I am attracted to the informa-
tion,” he said, “not the people
running the page.”
The gathering gradually grew,
attracting news crews. People
chanted at the cameras: “Down
with France!” “Partnership with
Russia!”
Some filed into a convention
center, where village chiefs from
different communities called for
resetting the country’s security
strategy. Outside the doors, a man
sold Russian flags. He, too, said
he’d commissioned them from a
tailor.
Others marched down the
road, waving their flags and blow-
ing into vuvuzelas.
Sawadogo rushed to join them.
“It feels good,” he said. “We are
doing something about our prob-
lems.”
He was already looking for-
ward to the next rally — whenever
it was. He would keep checking
the Internet for announcements.Oumar Zombre in Ouagadougou
contributed to this report.His mother taught him about
standing up to power. She took to
the streets after a Burkinabe jour-
nalist critical of the government
was killed in 1998. She encour-
aged him to march against for-
mer president Blaise Compaoré’s
2014 attempt to extend his 27-
year rule.
These days, their conversa-
tions focused on Putin’s war in
Ukraine.
“Russia is more powerful than
Ukraine,” his mother, Mariam,
told him, slicing lettuce to sell at
her vegetable stand near his
house. “They should talk instead.
They should cease fire.”
“Russia is right to invade
Ukraine,” Sawadogo gently
pressed back. “Ukraine should
have respected its neighbor.”
He often wandered over to chat
with her about everything:
church, his girlfriend, world
events.
“My son tells me things will
keep getting worse here if Russia
doesn’t intervene,” Mariam said.
“And I agree. Let Russia come
here. I’m old. I want to go back to
my village, but it’s too danger-
ous.”
They’d fled the countryside af-
ter gunmen shot up a market. His
brother, the teacher, joined them
in January after his primary
school burned down.
“We need to convince our gov-
ernment to work with Putin,”
Sawadogo said. “Russia is strong
enough to help.”
Sawadogo doesn’t remember
the exact moment he began see-
ing Putin as the answer. But he
has watched dozens of videos on
Facebook, he estimates, outlining
arguments that made sense to
him.
One of his favorite accounts —
the page on Code for Africa’s
watch list — is called L’Afrique
Mon Beau Pays, or “Africa My
Beautiful Country” in French.
The page, created in 2017, has
about 55,000 followers and is
administered in Cameroon. The
pro-Putin and anti-West posts are
mixed with clips of activists in
Mali and Burkina Faso, among
other African nations, advocating
closer relationships with Mos-
cow.
“I like the information they
share,” Sawadogo said, holding
up his phone, which displayed a
post of a tank captioned “THE
RUSSIAN Z” with three flexed
muscle emoji.
The Post sent the account to
Code for Africa, which ran an
investigative review of its con-are especially targeting West and
Central African nations grap-
pling with conflict, according to
Code for Africa. Among them are
Burkina Faso and Mali, which
both face fast-growing insurgen-
cies and have endured a com-
bined three coups d’état since
- They’re also home to deep
reserves of gold and other pre-
cious minerals that analysts say
Moscow covets.
Content glamorizing Putin
skyrocketed in West Africa just
before Russian mercenaries land-
ed in Mali last December. The
United States and its allies view
the Wagner Group as a covert arm
of the Kremlin that provides se-
curity in exchange for mineral
wealth, among other strategic
assets, while committing human
rights atrocities. The United Na-
tions has called for an investiga-
tion into reports that the Malian
army, accompanied by “Russian
private military personnel,” exe-
cuted dozens of civilians during a
March combat mission.
Pro-Wagner posts have multi-
plied recently in Burkina Faso.
Facebook pages administered
in the nation seldom mentioned
the mercenaries before news
broke about Mali’s deal with Wag-
ner last September. But by late
January, accounts had referenced
Wagner 1,240 times, and the
number of users engaging with
Wagner posts spiked from 5,
to 350,000, according to research
from Code for Africa and the
Atlantic Council’s Digital Foren-
sic Research Lab.
“We’re seeing a lot more fake
news. More and more pro-Russia
messages,” said Jordan Meda, a
fact-checker at FasoCheck in
Ouagadougou, “and little by little,
more calls for military collabora-
tion with Russia from ordinary
people.”
The Putin fan
Sawadogo didn’t talk much
about geopolitics when Burkina
Faso was peaceful. Then attacks
erupted in 2015 and have wors-
ened almost every year since.
Thousands have died in the vio-
lence. More than 1.7 million have
lost their homes.
Before traveling outside Oua-
gadougou meant risking his life,
he split his time between here
and the village, hawking baby
dolls and squirt guns and plastic
cupcakes. During the holidays, he
dressed up like Santa, toting his
toys in a sack.
AFRICA FROM A
Burkina Faso’s president in Janu-
ary, a Russian combat instructor
in the Central African Republic
appealed to the new leadership in
an open letter, offering defense
assistance. (The military junta
did not publicly respond.)
The rally organizers have de-
nied receiving financial support
from Russia. Since late last year,
several activists in Burkina Fasolandscape that artists used to sell
to tourists before the insurgency
scared most of them away. He
scrawled a message in chalk: “Too
much. It’s too much. Down with
France. Welcome Russia.”
A Burkinabe group had orga-
nized this rally, saying it wanted
the government to forge a secu-
rity alliance with Moscow. After
military officers overthrewtent. Twice this year, the research-
ers found, the page appeared to
be part of a coordinated network
that promoted the same set of
dubious stories.
When reached by a Post report-
er, the administrator of L’Afrique
Mon Beau Pays declined to reveal
their full name or nationality,
saying only that they were “Afri-
can.”
The person did not answer
questions about ties to Russia,
responding: “I am responsible for
what I say and no longer respon-
sible for what people read.”The rally
A local activist on Facebook
spread the word: Rally against
France. Rally for “Russian part-
nership.” March 27. Revolution
Square.
Sawadogo started planning his
outfit.
He had attended his first pro-
Russian protest two months ear-
lier and had a great time until
police broke it up with tear gas.
Sawadogo collected one of the
metal canisters and taped it to his
wall. Some of the demonstrators
carried Russian flags, inspiring
him to call the tailor.
For his sign, he flipped over a
wooden painting of a BurkinabePHOTOS BY DANIELLE PAQUETTE/THE WASHINGTON POST
Ismael Sawadogo picks up his pro-Russian threads from a tailor in Ouagadougou on March 26. They
cost 5,000 West African CFA francs, or about $8 — almost a quarter of his monthly earnings.Men take part in a rally in Ouagadougou on March 27. Organizers
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