Information Integrity, Peace and Security in Africa
Information Integrity, Peace and Security in AfricaDate | 8 October 2026
Tomorrow (9 October), the African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council (PSC) will convene its 1372nd Session under the theme ‘Information Integrity, Peace and Security in Africa.’
Following opening remarks from Churchill Ewumbue-Monono, Permanent Representative of Cameroon to the AU and chairperson of the PSC for the month of October, the AU Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security (PAPS), Bankole Adeoye, is expected to make an introductory statement. Ourveena Geeresha Topsy-Sonoo, Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information, African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR), will then make a statement, followed by Rita Bissoonauth, Director, UNESCO Liaison Office to the AU and UNECA. Further statements are expected from Charlotte Scaddan, Senior Adviser on Information Integrity, Office of the Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, United Nations, Ibrahima Tounkara, Head of the ICRC Delegation to the AU, Solomon A. Dersso, Executive Director of Amani Africa Media Research Services, and Omar Faruk Osman, President of the Federation of African Journalists (FAJ). A representative of the EU Delegation to the AU will also make a statement.
Previously, the PSC has convened several sessions that have directly or indirectly focused on information integrity, peace and security. On 4 August 2022, the PSC convened its 1097th meeting on ‘Emerging Technologies and New Media: Impact on Democratic Governance, Peace and Security in Africa.’ Moreover, on 13 June 2024, the Council convened for its 1214th meeting, which focused on the theme, ‘Looking into the Future: AI and its Impact on Peace and Security in Africa.’ The session tasked the AU Commission to ‘enhance efforts to combat misinformation and disinformation, as well as fake news, through AI-driven tools while also addressing the risks associated with AI-generated false information.’
Most significantly, on 2 September 2024, the PSC held its 1230th meeting on ‘Protection of Journalists and Access to Information in Situations of Armed Conflicts in Africa.’ The session, which also addressed the spread of misinformation and disinformation, particularly on digital platforms, saw the AU Commission being tasked to ‘facilitate the development of a strategy and policy framework that enables the use of information and the media for peace-building, mediation, reconciliation, post-conflict reconstruction and peace support operations.’
On 14 November 2025, the Council held its 1311th meeting focusing on ‘Media, Peace and Security.’ This was its most comprehensive engagement to date on the role of the media in Africa’s peace, security and governance landscape. Of importance, it called for the expedition of ‘the development of a Continental Framework on Digital Peace and Information Integrity in Africa.’
Coming within the framework of the commemoration of the International Day for Universal Access to Information (IDUAI), marked under the theme ‘Upholding Information Integrity in the Digital Age: The role of access to information in addressing information disorder,’ tomorrow’s session offers the PSC an opportunity to assess the threats information disorder poses to peace and security on the continent, review progress on its earlier decisions on media and digital governance, and chart practical steps toward a coherent continental approach to information integrity.
Information Integrity refers to an information ecosystem in which reliable and accurate information is available to all, enabling people to engage meaningfully in public life, make informed decisions and exercise their rights. In the digital age, information integrity is not just about safeguarding rights. It is central to political stability, democratic governance, social cohesion and economic advancement. No domain of public life or industry can function optimally without information integrity. This is particularly true for peace and security.
As the quality of information affects both the behaviour of conflict parties and the context, the absence of information integrity is detrimental to peace and security. Without information integrity, it becomes difficult to distinguish between truth and falsehood. In the absence of truth, there can be no trust. In the absence of truth and trust, war and conflict, division and violence thrive. The pursuit of peace is hugely impaired.
Thus, disinformation and the viral spread of hate speech or manipulated content can incite communal and ethnic violence and mob attacks. They can undermine electoral credibility and trigger post-election unrest, delegitimise peace processes, mediation efforts and peace operations, endanger humanitarian workers and feed recruitment and propaganda by terrorist and armed groups. They can also complicate the work of early warning by flooding the information space with false and unverified information. As such, the impact on peace and security is not marginal. It is direct and substantial.
There are examples that illustrate these damaging consequences of disinformation. In Sudan, rival factions turned digital platforms into a battlefield that shapes both the conduct of hostilities and the public’s engagement, with major consequences for the safety of civilians and fueling polarisation that undermines efforts to contain the war. Generative AI has opened a new front across the continent, with fake audio, deepfake videos and false endorsements used to sway elections and provoke instability. Nigeria‘s 2023 presidential election is described as possibly the first large-scale use of AI-generated electoral content in Africa. Following Tanzania‘s October 2025 elections, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights denounced the internet shutdown during the election and the AU Election Observation Mission and SADC acknowledged that the blackout hampered monitoring. Somalia‘s Al-Shabaab maintains consistent narratives across Facebook, Telegram, X, YouTube and other outlets, adapting quickly to moderation by creating backup accounts and moving between platforms, and treating the online space as an integral front of its insurgency.
Challenges to information integrity arise from various sources. One source is the malicious use of, or susceptibility of, digital media and AI technologies by actors who weaponise information to orchestrate manipulation, exploitation, or harm. Related to this is the challenge of the lack of adequate safety measures in the design, development and deployment of digital platforms that have become main avenues for accessing and transmitting information. Additionally, access and distribution risks/challenges stem from the decline of independent journalism and press freedom, the prevalence of algorithmic systems that limit information availability, visibility and diversity, and persistent digital divides. There are also content-based risks/challenges such as the spread and amplification of disinformation campaigns, hate speech and harassment targeting individuals or vulnerable groups.
Information integrity is also affected by the transformation of the information ecosystem due to new technology. More and more people rely on digital platforms to access, produce, and share information. Rapid growth of generative artificial intelligence, synthetic media, algorithmic amplification and cross-border influence operations accelerate the speed and scale of the spread of disinformation. Yet, despite the growth in internet and social media use on the continent, particularly among a young population, and the pace and scale of dissemination, local-language content moderation, fact-checking capacity, digital literacy and regulatory frameworks have not kept pace.
Another element that the PSC is likely to consider is media capture and exclusionary representation – two dynamics that seriously hinder democratic governance and peacebuilding. The first is the concentration of media ownership in the hands of political elites or business interests, often through state-controlled or state-influenced outlets, which narrows the range of information available to citizens. It weakens independent journalism, skews public discourse and leaves audiences with fewer credible sources to trust, often pushing them to unverified sources of information from digital platforms.
It is worth noting for the PSC from the foregoing that disinformation and other forms of information disorder have direct bearing at societal, national, regional, continental and international levels. This necessitates policy response at all these levels. At the national level, this would entail laws that set standards for safeguarding information integrity through a) prohibition of disinformation, b) the obligation of digital platforms to ensure coverage of African languages, transparency and put in place systems for detecting and taking measures against disinformation through algorithmic systems and content moderation, including labelling, suppressing, taking down misleading, harmful and manipulated content and accounts breaching community standards, c) promoting and protecting fact-checking, the functioning of free media and independent journalism, digital, media and information literacy and d) establishing regulatory bodies empowered to enforcing standards. At the continental level, the required policy action includes supporting the work of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights and follow up on PSC’s decision for the development of a continental framework on information integrity and peace and security. Within the African Peace and Security Architecture, it would entail the systematic integration of information integrity considerations including media analysis, digital monitoring and fact-checking into AU election monitoring and observation framework, Continental Early Warning System and in preventive diplomacy and peace processes for managing and resolving conflicts including mediation, peacemaking and peace support operations.
The expected outcome of tomorrow’s session is a communiqué. Council may underscore the imperative of information integrity to advance peace and security in Africa and express concern over the serious threat that information disorder, including disinformation, poses to both political stability and the promotion of peace and security. It may encourage Member States to adopt, domesticate and effectively implement access to information laws in line with the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Model Law on Access to Information for Africa, as well as promote proactive disclosure of public information as a means of countering disinformation and building public trust. Council may reiterate its call for the expedition of the Continental Framework on Digital Peace and Information Integrity in Africa, with a clear timeline for the AU Commission, along with the speeding up of and full coherence with a continental framework on ‘Information Integrity, Digital, Media and Information Literacy (MIL)’. The PSC may also highlight the need to integrate media analysis, digital monitoring and fact-checking into the Continental Early Warning System and include information integrity indicators in election observation, mediation support and peace support operations. Council may further encourage the formal establishment of the AU Group of Friends for the Safety of Journalists in Addis Ababa, the completion of the study on the legal, institutional and policy framework for the protection of journalists and access to information, and also encourage coordination among the PSC, the AU Commission, the RECs/RMs, the ACHPR, the UN and its agencies, and civil society.