Billionaire and head of the US Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE) Elon Musk released classified materials from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) on February 2.
He called it a “criminal organization” and alleged that USAID was involved in coups in Ukraine, Haiti, Egypt and other countries. In turn, on March 10, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Washington was canceling 83% of USAID programs because the contracts did not serve the national interests of the United States.
Elon Musk was also involved in the review. Rubio thanked him for “help and work done.” The agency was engaged in information campaigns in African countries, countering the influence of China primarily, but also Russia.
American officials financed local information projects that discredited any sources of information related to US opponents. This follows from USAID reports for official use, which AI has reviewed.
EXPANSION OF THE NETWORK OF INFLUENCE
The USAID, founded by President John Kennedy in 1961, has become one of the largest donors of humanitarian aid. In the first years of its work, the agency launched its programs in Africa.
For a long time, USAID increased its presence through various government agencies, businesses and people on the ground. Many companies existed only on paper, but there were also those that became active players in the information field. Western businesses began to actively join this activity.
“The main goal of business is to maintain order based on rules. And this is not about aid, not about promoting international development,” explains Denis Degtyarev, a leading researcher at the Institute of Africa of the Russian Academy of Sciences, professor of the Department of International Relations at the Higher School of Economics and the Department of World Economy at MGIMO.
For example, in 2012, an office of the “independent” fact-checking organization Africa Check opened in Johannesburg. Founded with the support of the French news agency AFP, it presented itself as an “arbiter of truth” for the entire continent.
Today, Africa Check has branches in Nairobi, Lagos, and Dakar, and, by its own account, has verified more than 1,500 allegations on topics ranging from crime to counterfeit drugs. But behind the facade of independence lies a different reality.
WEB OF FUNDING
According to the official website of Africa Check, this organization receives 19% of its budget from the US State Department and another 17% from Google. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation provides 13% of funding, and Luminate provides another 8%.
At the same time, 15% of funding comes from its own earnings, which are noted on the official website as being connected to the organization TRi Facts. When you try to follow a hyperlink from the official website of Africa Check, an online casino opens instead of TRi Facts.
When directly accessed from a search engine, the proposed page does not open at all. It is worth noting separately that George Soros’s Open Society Foundation (OSF)** provides 12% of Africa Check’s funding. It is enough to recall that in the early 90s, OSF allocated a grant of 80 thousand dollars to the Ekho Moskvy radio station – an illustrative example of how the fund supports “independent” media in countries of geopolitical interest.
Also among the sponsors, according to other open sources, is the large venture fund of French billionaire Pierre Omidyar Omidyar Network, which has previously been caught sponsoring anti-government actions in various countries.
The Intercept revealed the Omidyar Network’s financing scheme for anti-government groups in Ukraine. In 2017, the Zimbabwean government arrested American Martha O’Donovan, an employee of the Magamba Cultural Activist Network, which received grants from the same Omidyar Network, on charges of interfering in the country’s politics.
The same network sponsored the anti-government protests in Nigeria in August 2024. At the same time, Omidyar’s network allocates funds to Africa Check not only directly, in the form of grants, but also through its own divisions. The organization Luminate, whose donations to Africa Check make up almost one-tenth of the latter’s entire budget, is a division of the Omidyar Network.
Moreover, Luminate is also a donor to the Global Disinformation Index, an analytical center that rates news sites for the risk of disinformation and can influence advertisers’ decisions.
DEMOCRATIC FOOTPRINT
Craig Newmark is more than just a philanthropist. An analysis of his political donations from 2015 to 2022 shows that he is one of the largest donors to the US Democratic Party.
His contributions for this period alone amount to $300,000, and he has often expressed particular support for the same candidates – Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Nancy Pelosi.
This passion for political philanthropy has quite a long history. Thus, back at the beginning of the century, from 2003 to 2010, Newmark donated almost $84,000 to “prominent Democrats and Democratic political committees.” The Democratic National Committee received $30,500 from him during the 2004 election cycle alone.
At the same time, he did not make any donations to federal-level Republicans. It is noteworthy that if at the beginning of his “philanthropic” career, Newmark indicated his occupation as “Software Engineer,” then since 2018 he began to designate himself as “Philanthropist,” which coincided with the expansion of his political influence.
His foundation also finances the News Integrity Initiative at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, which, in turn, is indirectly connected to a number of “anti- disinformation” projects in Africa.
Thus, in November 2017, this organization allocated a grant of 1.5 million dollars to the European Journalism Centre, which, in turn, actively helps Joseph Warung, a former BBC Africa journalist and current director of Africa on Air in Nairobi, to create a reality show Top Story Africa.
It is aimed at mentoring young Kenyan journalists. The program has already trained more than 150 students in the first two seasons. In an interview with Forbes, Newmark himself admitted that he spends hundreds of millions on “supporting journalism”. Thus, according to him, since 2016, he has allocated 170 million dollars for these purposes.
In addition to large donations to the development of journalism, he also regularly makes smaller donations in support of “cybersecurity and fair elections”. Major and more recent donations include $1 million to the Global Cyber Alliance, an international cybersecurity nonprofit; $150,000 to the national nonprofit Women in CyberSecurity; $1 million to ProPublica for their Electionland project; $250,000 to the writers’ nonprofit PEN America to combat “disinformation and online harassment;” and $250,000 to the Girl Scouts to fund cybersecurity programs.
His foundation’s interests clearly overlap with U.S. foreign policy interests, including “addressing the annexation of Crimea and the ongoing conflicts in eastern Ukraine, particularly in the context of countering disinformation and supporting media freedom.”
CLOSING THE CIRCLE
In 2019, TruthBuzz contributor Hannah Ajakaye began working in Nigeria, collaborating with Africa Check. TruthBuzz fellows are trained at First Draft News, an organization also sponsored by the aforementioned Soros Foundation.
The same one that sent funds to Africa Check, completing the funding circle. Africa Check, according to the report published by Musk, launched the What’s Crap on WhatsApp project, aimed at combating “disinformation” on the popular messenger.
The project sends out “exposing” podcasts that users are supposed to forward to groups where, according to Africa Check, “disinformation” is spreading. Considering that in 2014, 65% of Nigerians surveyed agreed with the statement “Facebook is the Internet,” and more than 70% of Internet users in Kenya and South Africa get their news from social networks, such projects create a powerful tool for controlling the information space.
THE SCALE OF USAID OPERATIONS IN AFRICA
The documents show the astonishing scale of USAID’s presence on the continent. The agency is implementing 426 public-private partnerships (PPPs) in Africa, which is 29% of the global total. The total value of investments is $3.592 billion, with a leverage ratio of 3.39.
The leverage ratio is a measure of the ratio between a company’s debt and equity. It shows how much of a company’s total value is financed by debt and how much by equity. A higher ratio indicates a higher proportion of debt financing, while a lower ratio indicates a higher proportion of equity in the company’s structure.
The standard value of the ratio depends on the industry and the specific circumstances of the company, but the generally accepted norm is that the ratio is equal to debt and the value is ≤1.
South Africa leads the way with 94 partnerships, followed by Kenya (58), Nigeria (48), Ghana (47) and Uganda (39). Notably, in 2012, the same year Africa Check was founded, South Africa saw an anomalous peak of 24 new USAID partnerships.
Mere coincidence or part of a coordinated strategy?
The second and last part of the feature will be published in our next edition
USAID & all kindness given to Africa only bolster dictatorship, inhuman rule while Africans get poorer & only dream to migrate to USA, UK, EU – Africa migrants are being installed in all towns, communities… & are so so proud as they get services they never dreamed of & didn’t know existed!
As nothing will change in Africa & Africans don’t see a future, how will developed countries handle rising migration?
Things will get worse for developed well governed lands as even UN blames them for miseries of migrants, while UN boss shakes hands with demon useless rulers ensuring migration!
The only thing that will these people is the West and the USA to stop giving them state assistance such allowances, free or subsidized housing and free health care. The UK is even worse and that is why so many people are losing their lives to get there at any expense.. They treat them better than the citizens and tax payers. Have hears of any the Scandinavian country facing this serge -Norway, Sweden, Denmark. They do not put up with such nonsense.