Building on the foundational insights of Emerging Military Populism in Francophone Africa—which traced the historical, ideological, and structural roots of militarised sovereignty across the region—this sequel, Military Populism: Mapping Digital Influence, Political Legitimacy, and Geopolitical Realignment in West Africa and the Sahel, advances the analysis from conceptual diagnosis to operational evidence.

While the background paper established how colonial legacies, democratic fragility, and anti-imperialist rhetoric created fertile ground for military populism’s resurgence, this report examines how those dynamics now function within a digitally coordinated information ecosystem. Drawing on analysis of 30,558 online publications monitored between July and September 2025 by CDD-West Africa and OIDH, the report demonstrates how military juntas and aligned actors are no longer merely exploiting governance crises—they are actively engineering legitimacy through social media, transnational propaganda networks, and geopolitical narrative warfare.

Introducing military populism as both an ideological project and a digitally amplified governance strategy, the study reveals how pro-AES narratives, anti-ECOWAS sentiment, anti-French rhetoric, and Russian influence converge to normalise authoritarianism, reshape regional alliances, and redefine sovereignty in the Sahel. In doing so, this sequel moves beyond identifying the rise of military populism to exposing the sophisticated digital architectures sustaining it, positioning information operations as central to understanding democratic erosion and geopolitical transformation in contemporary West Africa.