The Election War Online: Ivory Coast and the Sahel’s Struggle Against Disinformation

As Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) prepares for its presidential elections in October 2025, the country — much like other nations in the Sahel region — is grappling with a mounting challenge: the spread of misinformation and disinformation aimed at destabilising democratic processes. Across the Sahel and West Africa, authoritarian-leaning governments, military juntas and foreign influence campaigns are using online platforms, social messaging apps and traditional media to inject confusion, sow distrust and undermine electoral credibility.

The threat in Côte d’Ivoire

Ivory Coast is explicitly alerting to disinformation campaigns that appear to emanate from neighbouring junta-led Sahel countries, targeting its elections with forged claims, false coup rumours and pro-Russia/anti-France narratives.

One expert platform found that the country’s information space is particularly vulnerable — with social-media channels like WhatsApp playing a central role in spreading unverified content.

The risk is not just informational but also security-related: according to Interpeace and its partners, misinformation and low civic trust are key factors raising the likelihood of election-related violence.
Interpeace

Ivory Coast’s response is multi-pronged:

A nationwide campaign led by the Ministry of Communication of Côte d’Ivoire under the hashtag #En Ligne Tous Responsables (“Online, we’re all responsible”) emphasises education, monitoring, prevention and rapid reaction to disinformation.

Trainings for the media: More than 240 journalists from around 80 media outlets have been trained in digital verification, fact-checking and responsible social-media coverage.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has run capacity-building workshops in Abidjan, strengthening civil society and media organisations ahead of the election.

Community-level interventions: Projects like the “Kouman” initiative (meaning “to speak” in Nouchi) are designed to engage young people and local radio stations, building civic dialogue and reducing the potency of misleading content.

Civil-society research & data: Organisations such as Penplusbytes have produced a “Disinformation Index” which revealed that 53 % of respondents reported verifying content before sharing and 50 % had reported misinformation. This indicates growing public awareness.

The fight in Ivory Coast mirrors that in Sahel countries such as Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, where military juntas have leveraged disinformation to weaken democratic transitions.
Disinformation Commission News

Because these campaigns cross borders and exploit weak digital-media ecosystems, regional cooperation (via ECOWAS, and international donors) is seen as critical.

When voters receive distorted or false information, their ability to make informed choices is impaired. In a country like Ivory Coast that has already experienced post-election violence, this isn’t just about facts—it’s about peace and stability. The growing public literacy in spotting fake news combined with institutional efforts to build resilient media ecosystems are promising, but the sheer speed and sophistication of online campaigns mean the struggle is far from over.