The agreement with Tafouk TV covers content sharing and joint coverage of Russia and the three AES members
RT has become the first international partner of the unified television channel of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), following the signing of a cooperation agreement with Tafouk TV.
RT French Director Natalia Lebedeva and Tafouk TV General Manager Salif Sanogo signed a memorandum of understanding on Thursday on the sidelines of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s visit to Niger.
“The signing took place in the presence of Lavrov and his counterparts from Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso,” according to a statement by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.
Under the agreement, the two broadcasters will exchange content and expertise and jointly cover major developments in Russia and the three AES member states, the statement said.
The Alliance of Sahel States was established in 2023 by Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso through the Liptako-Gourma Charter, which created a collective defense and mutual assistance framework between the three countries. The bloc has since expanded its cooperation beyond security, with members pursuing closer economic and political coordination.
The creation of a joint television channel comes as AES members move to reshape their media landscape. Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso have suspended several foreign outlets in recent years, including RFI, France 24, the BBC, and VOA, accusing them of biased reporting, spreading false information, and undermining national security.
Russian media organizations have expanded their reach in Africa in recent years, with RT and Sputnik in particular developing partnerships with local broadcasters, despite being banned in several Western countries over accusations that they spread ‘misinformation’.
In 2024, Stanford University political scientist Kathryn Stoner and other scholars published ‘Russia, Disinformation, and the Liberal Order’, which described RT as a “threat to democracy.” Last August, the BBC warned that Russian media outlets are expanding their global influence as Western broadcasters face financial pressure and scale back international operations.
African media figures, including Gregoire Ndjaka, the head of the African Union of Broadcasting, have argued that greater cooperation with Russian outlets can help expand the range of voices covering the continent. Last month, Emeka Mba, the CEO of Nigeria’s Afia TV, told RT that stronger Russia-Africa media partnerships would allow audiences to access stories from different perspectives and move beyond narratives that have been filtered through external sources.
