Thread by @Heidi_Cuda

ICYMI: The Russian trolls are back poisoning the political atmosphere in the United States..But this time they are better disguised and more targeted, harder to identify and track. And they have found an unlikely home, far from Russia—in Ghana.-@cnn 2020 cnn.com/2020/03/12/wor…

More than 200 accounts were created by the Ghanaian trolls -- the vast majority in the second half of 2019 -- and they reached hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of people worldwide.-@cnn 2020 archives

"Most were tweeting in English and presented themselves as based in the United States. The accounts—operating out of Ghana and Nigeria and which we can reliably associate with Russia—attempted to sow discord by engaging in conversations about social issues, race and civil rights”

The activity uncovered by CNN had striking similarities to the Russian troll campaign of 2016, which created 100s of accounts designed to pass as American. @africamustwake for example which described itself as a "Platform For BLM Racism PoliceBrutality," claimed to be in Florida.

The operation's headquarters were in a walled compound in a quiet residential district near the Ghanaian capital, Accra. It had been rented by a small nonprofit group that called itself Eliminating Barriers for the Liberation of Africa (EBLA).-@cnn

Sixteen Ghanaians, mostly in their 20s, worked at the compound; some lived rent-free in a nearby apartment. They were issued mobile phones, not laptops, and worked around a table. The EBLA trolls communicated as a group through the encrypted Telegram app, rarely used in Ghana.

One of the trolls agreed to talk to CNN, so long as her identity was disguised. She said she had no idea she would be working as a Russian troll.-@cnn 2020 archives

Facebook said that although the people behind the campaign had attempted to conceal their purpose and coordination, its investigation had found links to both EBLA and "individuals associated with past activity by the Russian Internet Research Agency."-@cnn 2020 archives

The Internet Research Agency (IRA) was responsible for much of the foreign trolling activity aimed at 2016 and 2018 US election campaigns according to the US government. The IRA was funded by Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin who is close to the Kremlin nicknamed "Putin's chef."

The man running EBLA calls himself Mr. Amara and claims to be South African. In reality he is a Ghanaian who lives in Russia and his name is Seth Wiredu. Several of EBLA's workers said they had heard Wiredu speak Russian.-@CNN 2020 archives

Ghanaian security sources subsequently told CNN that all of EBLA's funding had come from Russia.

Russia has shown growing interest in Africa—using a mix of state power and private interests. Those private interests include Russian companies keen to exploit Africa's energy and commodity resources as well as provide private military contractors to bolster local security forces

A CNN investigation found companies linked to Prigozhin were active in the Central African Republic, training its army and police forces and winning concessions to extract diamonds and gold. Prigozhin companies or contractors have also been present in Libya, Sudan and Mozambique.

They have also tried to influence the politics of African countries.

Last October, Facebook closed networks of accounts that were actively targeting a total of 8 African countries. It said that: "Our investigation connected these campaigns to entities associated with Prigozhin."