By Jean-Pierre Afadhali
Fresh investigation published by the Continent-an African digital publication, last Friday shows Rwanda’s government spent a whopping $85,610 to influence its online image, amid increasing criticism and sanctions over its involvement in the Eastern DR Congo’s war. Kigali has always denied any role in the armed conflict.
The detailed investigation reveals how one core narrative team co-ordinates a layered response: challenging evidence, questioning credibility, amplifying official documents, introducing counternarratives, and flooding threads with competing claims, reports the Continent in its issue 247, in a detailed article written by journalists Michela Wrong and James Okong’o.
However, in what appears to be a response to the investigative report, Yolande Makolo, Rwanda’s government spokesperson, downplayed the Continent’s report, saying via X that Africans are free to comment on the issues that affect them. She wrote: “Our favorite Karen (& her props) appears positively panicked that Africans might have political opinions about issues that affect them—and worse, the same platform she uses to express them. This is a shady attempt to police Rwandan voices, not an “investigation.” It is 2026, Africans are political, Rwandans can talk back, not just be talked about. We also just talk among ourselves sometimes.”
A document accessed by the Continent, published in its recent investigative report, contains a list of social media influencers, paid to challenge Rwanda’s critics over the ongoing war in the DR Congo.
According to the digital-weekly publication, an administrative error made the Google spreadsheet be accessible to everyone. It offers a glimpse of how that system of the online influence control operates. Kigali had not yet responded at the time the investigative report was published, but one of the listed influencers in the google document contacted, said the reporters who had reached out to him, contacted the wrong person.
A Google spreadsheet listing nine state-funded digital operatives was left as a publicly accessible link, reports the Continent. It adds that link was shared with journalists by sources, detailing the personnel, equipment, and budgets behind one influence operation.
According to the investigations, the task of social media influencers was to “shape opinion about the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)”, where March 23 Movement (M23) rebels – backed by Rwanda – now hold territory larger than Rwanda itself.
None of the influencers disclose any government affiliation in their handles, presenting themselves instead as ordinary, patriotic Rwandan citizens.
Three lines of attacks
The investigation examined 60,000 posts on X, published in English, French, Kinyarwanda, and Kiswahili. According to the Continent, an analysis of the posts by the nine influencers reveals three main lines of attack: discrediting critics of Rwanda’s well-documented support for M23; promoting a narrative that casts the DRC army as interchangeable with a Hutu militia founded by the perpetrators of the 1994 genocide against Tutsis; and framing Rwanda simply as a protector of the persecuted Tutsi minority in eastern DRC.
Rwanda has often said it set up what it calls the defensive measures, but in the recent months acknowledged, it collaborates with the AFC- M23 rebels to protect its borders with DR Congo.
The document was created in January 2024. At the time, Rwanda was under increasing international scrutiny over its alleged backing of M23, states the Continent. The country was also gearing up for an election in July that year, which President Paul Kagame later won with over 99% of the vote.
Since the rebels seized large swathes of eastern DRC in January 2025, the United States, European Union, and the United Nations have sanctioned Rwanda’s military, top officials, and M23 commanders.
Kigali rejects accusations it is working with M23, saying it faces legitimate security threats from armed groups in eastern DRC and is acting to protect Congolese Tutsi communities.
The spreadsheet, still live this week, suggests another battle was being fought at the same time, reports the Continent.
The extent of Kigali’s online influence operations is not known, according to recent investigations. The list documents only one team and does not establish the full extent of Rwanda’s online influence operations. But it offers a rare insight into digital propaganda: it puts names, budgets, equipment, and organisational structure to a system that usually operates behind anonymous accounts and patriotic slogans.
The spreadsheet lists nine individuals by name, phone numbers, and X handles, as well as payments for phones, computers, airtime, internet data, and monthly salaries of between 750,000 and 900,000 Rwandan francs (about $520 to $620). The operation’s annual budget is listed as 124,124,000 Rwandan francs ($85,610). It is run from the Office of the Government Spokesperson (OGS), led by Yolande Makolo. The team, intelligence analysts say, prepares messaging, hashtags, photos, and videos for distribution through networks of activists and social-media users across Rwanda.
Organised networks
These networks are organised through student associations, genocide survivors’ organisations, and regional youth groups. Members are told which topics and hashtags to amplify. They are also mobilised to report opposing accounts to X’s moderators, attempting to trigger suspensions and silence critical voices.
Former sports journalist Prudence Nsengumukiza, who worked for digital news platform Kigali Today, told the Continent Rwanda’s civic-education programmes encourage young people to regard online activism as a patriotic responsibility.
“You are told as soon as you see someone criticise Kagame on social media, you have to go on the attack, to intimidate,” Nsengumukiza was quoted as saying. The former reporter fled Rwanda in 2021 and now works for Amnesty International in Brussels. “You’re told: ‘Try to have as many accounts as you can.’”
An analysis of the nine listed accounts shows that they do not simply repeat identical messages. Instead, they perform complementary roles, according to The Continent.
One of the biggest accounts is Tito Harerimana (@harerimana_tito), who repackages official speeches, military statements, and government documents. Harerimana is one of Rwanda’s most successful social media influencers, with more than 117,000 followers. They are a sustained amplifier of pro-government narratives, particularly about the M23 conflict and Rwanda’s regional security posture, states the recent investigative report.
“A more combative group, including Janviere Akimanzi (@Manzi_patriote), responds rapidly to criticism from foreign governments, journalists, and organisations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International,” reveals the investigation published last weekend.
