03/08/2025
Covert Media Warfare: How Fake News is Engineered to Bury the Truth in Sudan
By Dr. Abdelaziz Al-Zubeir Basha
August 4, 2025
In the age of hybrid warfare, truth has become collateral damage.
Battles today are not waged solely with bullets and drones—but with headlines, hashtags, and algorithmic manipulation. Nowhere is this more evident than in Sudan, where a brutal ground war is paralleled by an equally ruthless information war, orchestrated by hidden actors seeking to shape perceptions and obscure accountability.
Last week, a fake CNN article began circulating widely on Sudanese and Arabic social media platforms. It claimed that Abdelrahim Dagalo, the powerful deputy commander of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), had died in the UAE from injuries sustained in a drone strike over Darfur. The post, complete with fabricated journalist names and CNN branding, was quickly debunked—but not before it achieved its intended purpose: burying the truth under the weight of a more viral falsehood.
This is not an isolated incident. It is a textbook case of strategic distraction—a coordinated disinformation effort designed to serve two goals:
1. Suppress and deflect from credible evidence of RSF war crimes. Around the same time the fake CNN story was gaining traction, a disturbing video surfaced online showing what appeared to be mass burials of civilians in RSF-controlled areas of Darfur. Shared by frontline citizen sources like , the footage received almost no attention from international media outlets.
2. Defuse public anger toward Abdelrahim Dagalo, the man many inside Sudan view as the chief architect of the RSF’s campaign of ethnic violence, displacement, and extrajudicial killings. In falsely reporting his death, the disinformation campaign sought to offer a false sense of closure—or at least, confusion.
Such operations are not the work of random internet trolls. They are typically run by coordinated influence networks, involving PR firms, intelligence units, and media fronts with access to resources, platforms, and psychological profiling tools. These actors specialize in what military analysts call “perception engineering”—the art of crafting alternative realities that serve geopolitical interests.
Many of these campaigns, particularly those involving Sudan, originate from or are supported by regional powers with deep stakes in the outcome of the conflict. The United Arab Emirates, widely accused of backing the RSF with arms, logistics, and political cover, has also been linked—directly or indirectly—to a growing number of influence operations in the digital realm.
The question, then, is no longer whether Sudan is a theater for covert media warfare. It is: Who is orchestrating it, who is funding it, and to what end?
Why, for instance, does a fake death report garner more engagement and coverage than verifiable footage of war crimes? Why are platforms and algorithms structured to prioritize the sensational over the factual? And most urgently: Why is the international community so easily misled—or so willfully indifferent?
In a world flooded with misinformation, the absence of truth is not a vacuum—it is a weapon. And in Sudan, this weapon is being used to protect war criminals, delay justice, and obscure the suffering of millions.
If Sudanese journalists, researchers, and civil society actors are to push back against this information siege, they must build robust verification systems, open-source intelligence networks, and regional media coalitions capable of countering disinformation with speed and credibility.
The battle for Sudan’s sovereignty is being fought on multiple fronts. But the battle for the truth—the fight to make reality visible and undeniable—is no less vital.
Sudan First. Always.
