DAKAR, September 10 — A new study from a Dakar-based think tank has found that generative artificial intelligence is increasingly being used for information warfare in Mali, with the conflict’s factions mastering the technology to varying degrees. The Timbuktu Institute’s analysis, released Wednesday, concluded that generative AI was being used to “amplify and accelerate” existing faultlines within the West African country. The institute described Mali as an “open-air laboratory” for the technology’s use in warfare.
Mali, a landlocked Sahelian nation, has been wracked since 2012 by a serious security crisis, notably fuelled by violence from jihadists, along with criminal gangs and armed separatists. The country is currently ruled by a military junta that seized power in a 2021 coup, its second takeover in less than a year.
Factions adopt AI unevenly
Far from being adopted uniformly, generative AI is being deployed via different means depending on the factions’ capabilities, resources and objectives, the Timbuktu Institute reported. While JNIM’s use appears “still limited,” its media arm Az-Zallaqa did release AI-generated posters. AI usage is more evident in spaces linked to the FLA.
Several TikTok accounts featuring AI-generated characters presented as real people broadcast messages favourable to the group. These characters artificially “humanise” the cause while also making it more difficult to identify who is behind the content, the think tank said.
The most sophisticated generative AI usage, however, has been by Russia and Africa Corps. The report noted that in 2024, Meta and OpenAI identified a Russian operation using AI models to produce commentary, articles and images in English and French aimed at audiences in sub-Saharan Africa. According to the analysis, Africa Corps possesses the resources and expertise to integrate AI into more structured operations that combine AI content, fake accounts and dissemination strategies.
A conflict with international dimensions
Starting in April, allied fighters from the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) and the Tuareg separatist Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) began carrying out a series of attacks meant to weaken the country’s junta rulers. The findings add a new dimension to a conflict that has already drawn in international actors. France, the former colonial power, intervened militarily in Mali in 2013 under Operation Serval, later folded into a broader counter-insurgency mission, Operation Barkhane, which ended in 2022 after the junta’s turn away from Paris.
The United Nations’ peacekeeping mission in Mali, MINUSMA, was terminated in 2023 at the junta’s request. The military government has in recent years cut ties with the West and grown close to Moscow, and is using Russia’s Africa Corps paramilitary fighters for help in battling the insurgents.
What to watch next is whether the Timbuktu Institute’s findings prompt any regional or international response, and how the factions’ AI capabilities evolve as the conflict continues.
