Control over the account of the conflict has become a central part of the three Sahel military governments’ wider campaign to shape public information. Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have launched Tafouk TV, a Russia-backed television channel intended to challenge Western coverage and present the three countries’ own version of events.
The channel began official programming on 16 September. It broadcasts from Bamako and is available through Canal+. Tafouk TV forms part of a wider media network being developed by the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), the grouping of the three military-led governments.
Its name means “Sun” in Tamasheq, a language spoken by many Tuareg communities across the Sahel. The channel’s opening theme draws on the music of traditional Dozo hunters. Its output includes three daily news bulletins focused on the AES members.
Mali’s foreign minister, Abdoulaye Diop, said this month that the governments saw the project as a response to media platforms they believed had set the terms of coverage. “We had to strike back... to ensure that these platforms could spread our own narrative,” he said.
Abdoul Niang, Tafouk TV’s news director, is described as a cyberactivist close to Mali’s military authorities. One of the channel’s programmes is called Communication Intervention Brigade. Its logo shows a shield containing a camera, microphone and pen.
The launch follows the expulsion of foreign correspondents from Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Several major Western broadcasters have also been suspended or banned across the three countries after reporting military losses or accounts that conflicted with official statements of battlefield success.
The restrictions on foreign reporting have created greater space for a shared AES media operation. Tafouk TV gives the three governments a television platform distributed through Canal+ while the alliance develops its broader network.
One programme featured the pan-African influencer Franklin Nyamsi, a supporter of the Sahel juntas. He analysed French media coverage of a thwarted mutiny in Niger in August. The brief does not provide further details of that event or of Tafouk TV’s programming beyond its daily news bulletins.
The channel’s launch combines political messaging with symbols drawn from the region’s languages and traditions. It also extends the media strategy of the AES governments, whose disputes with foreign broadcasters have followed coverage of military setbacks and claims that differed from official accounts.
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