The ‘ghost reporters’ writing pro-Russian propaganda in West Africa

Al Jazeera finds that nonexistent writers are spreading anti-France sentiment across West and Central Africa.

Eight pallbearers – some wearing tracksuits emblazoned with the FIFA logo – carried a coffin on their shoulders. Alongside them, referee whistles echoed the tune of a song being sung by the funeral procession.

It was September 2020, and hundreds of people had gathered at a sports stadium in the Central African Republic (CAR) to bid farewell to Jean Claude Sendeoli.

Sendeoli was a teacher at a secondary school in the capital, Bangui, and a referee for the country’s football federation. After his death, students posted messages on the school’s Facebook page to remember their much-loved teacher while FIFA named him in its 2020 obituaries, closing the book on his journey.

But what nobody knew was that even after he was laid to rest, his identity was not.

In the years that followed, photos of Sendeoli would become part of a pro-Russian propaganda campaign – one that used his image to create a fake persona whose articles have been published in media outlets in more than a dozen African countries.