COLUMNS

Mutiny in Niger: Russia, AES and the Limits of Propaganda

Daily Dispatch September 5, 2026

By Oumarou Sanou The attempted mutiny in Niger has exposed something more consequential than a challenge to General Abdourahamane Tiani’s three-year-old military regime. It has revealed the widening gap between the junta’s rhetoric of sovereignty and its dependence on foreign

FEATURES

Opportunity or Entrapment? What Nigeria’s Youth Must Ask Before Flying to Russia

Daily Dispatch August 25, 2026

By Oumarou Sanou There is nothing wrong with urging Nigerian youth to look past Britain, America and Canada, or with Russia offering scholarships to African students. Young Nigerians deserve every legitimate route to education the world can offer. But there is everything wrong with dismissing documented security concerns as “propaganda” simply because the offer

FEATURES

The Map Does Not Lie: How AES Failed the Sahel

Daily Dispatch May 18, 2026

Five years of military rule in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have produced not sovereignty but collapse. No propaganda can survive the evidence of the May 2026 security map. By Oumarou Sanou​There is one document that no junta press conference can censor, no hired influencer can spin, and no state television anchor can reframe. It […]

COLUMNS

Mali, Russia, and the Collapse of a Dangerous Illusion

Daily Dispatch May 1, 2026

The coordinated jihadist assault of 25 to 26 April did not merely expose the limits of the AES and Mali’s military junta. It shattered the strategic illusion that has guided the country since its rupture with ECOWAS and the wider international community. By Oumarou Sanou The events that unfolded across Mali last weekend are not […]

COLUMNS

Pan-Africanism: Beyond Propaganda, Towards Purpose

Daily Dispatch April 21, 2026

Pan-Africanism is regaining visibility in public discourse, but much of its current expression risks straying from its original purpose. As Oumarou Sanou argues, substituting Western influence with that of Moscow or Beijing does not constitute true liberation—it simply replaces one form of dependence with another. This perspective challenges the prevailing narrative and

COLUMNS

Interrogating the Russian Model in Africa

Daily Dispatch February 21, 2026

By Oumarou Sanou In recent years, Russian influence in Africa has expanded at a striking pace and with strategic precision. From Bamako to Bangui, Niamey to Ouagadougou, Moscow has presented itself as a dependable alternative partner; one that claims no colonial guilt, imposes no lectures on governance, and attaches no democratic conditionalities to cooperation. In […]