Since the outbreak of war in Sudan in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), war propaganda campaigns have erupted, aiming to conceal facts and spread misleading news targeting both the military opponents and the citizens alike. In this research, we will explore the most prominent propaganda techniques used by the active forces in the Sudan conflict.
War propaganda, in its general definition, is a systematic effort to manipulate other people’s beliefs, attitudes, or actions through the use of symbols such as words, gestures, banners, monuments, music, clothing, insignia, hairstyles, designs on coins and postage stamps, among others. War propaganda can be defined as a series of actions undertaken by military regimes and groups, aimed at adversely affecting the recipient through the dissemination of false and misleading information presented as truth. War propaganda is spread to promote a particular idea or case.
The term “propaganda” was used in modern European languages dating back to the Thirty Years’ War, which Europe witnessed as a result of the historical schism in the Catholic Church following Martin Luther’s rebellion. His attempt to reform the church both religiously and secularly led to the outbreak of war between the North and the South in Europe.
Fearing the spread of Martin Luther’s ideas, Pope Gregory XV commissioned the establishment of the “Church Commission for Propaganda” in 1622 to spread the doctrine of the Catholic Church to non-believers. Since then, propaganda has been increasingly used in conflict, especially in military contexts.
At that time, propaganda was defined as “an organised plan, or movement to spread a certain concept or practice.” The French Revolution gave the term “propaganda” a new dimension, associating it with enlightenment. It also gave the press tremendous power to influence the masses, prompting politicians to use it as a primary tool in political conflict.
In this research, we will review how war propaganda techniques were used in the Sudan war and how they found their way to the recipient and the opponent. We will explain each technique separately and how it was capitalised on to achieve the agenda. During our analysis, we used hashtag analysis to map out the key actors in war propaganda in Sudan on X. We also found coordinated inauthentic behaviour (CIB) networks that use specific tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs), including copy-pasting, use of hashtags, and amplification in traditional media.
Slogans and Hashtags
Certain words and phrases, usually catchy, are used in a repetitive manner to spread a particular agenda. This technique was used in war propaganda to spread certain ideas and. In the case of Sudan, the actors in war propaganda, namely the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, used this technique. We find that the Rapid Support Forces used the hashtag (معركة الديمقراطية#) “Battle of Democracy” with most, if not all, of their posts about the war. This is the concept they used to justify their military actions. Rather, it is, according to their description, the reason for their involvement in the war, which is the search for democracy.
On the other hand, we find that the Sudanese army used the hashtag “Battle of Dignity”معركة الكرامة #) with all its posts on its Facebook account, which is the description that accompanies their military discourse, namely that they are fighting for the dignity of Sudan and its people.In a counter-war propaganda, the army used the hashtag (#RapidSupportIsTerroristMilitia) in most of its posts.
This chart shows hashtag usage:
This technique has been employed with hashtags such as ( بل بس Push forward) and others to establish/support a specific narrative; these hashtags and slogans were used by war propaganda campaigns supporting the army and the Rapid Support Forces alike. For example, those who support the ongoing war in Sudan use the hashtag (بل بس# Push forward), which is a slang term commonly used in Sudan, to encourage the continuation of the war. Each party formulates a narrative explaining why people should support its agenda and then adds a slogan or hashtag to reinforce that idea.
This chart shows the extent to which the hashtag (بل بس، #) have been used on X Since May 2023
Another hashtag has been created and amplified in some disinformation networks to spread misleading content about Sudan and these hashtags found widespread due to the content that accompanied it( #Sudan, #Gaza, #Hamas ) these hashtags were used to link what is happening in Sudan with Hamas’ actions in Gaza, according to a comparison that was drawn by an Emirati researcher named Amjad Taha on X. the account has more than 556,000 followers and claims to be affiliated with the British middle east center for studies and research, according to uk government information service, the centre was dissolved in 2018 and had only one employee, the regional director Amjad Taha. This chart shows the use of these hashtags together on X.
(#Sudan, #Gaza, #Hamas) The mentioned hashtags have been spread and amplified using specific tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs). The hashtags and slogans have become associated with content related to the war in Sudan, to the point that citizens have begun to use them unconsciously in the content they write or publish on social media.
Copy-pasting
Copy-pasting is the deliberate process of repeating certain concepts or misleading ideas to implement them in the recipient’s mind, by copying and pasting them multiple times across various online platforms, eventually leading readers to accept these ideas as significant facts.
War propaganda campaigns used this technique because it was linked to the concept of repetition, which works to consolidate concepts in the minds of recipients, even if they are incorrect. This was utilised by CIB networks working in war propaganda by manipulating minds.
This method was employed by Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior (CIB) networks, which worked to establish certain narratives about the war, its beginning, and those responsible for igniting it by continually reiterating this misleading information until it became ingrained in the reader’s mind. Marsad Beam – Beam Reports’ dedicated fact-checking department – published four reports on the activities of these networks and their ability to establish concepts through repetition.
We need to clarify how CIB networks can be part of the copy-pasting technique. CIB networks, defined as Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior networks, consist of a set of accounts working in unison to consistently push particular false and manipulative information ensuring its widespread dissemination.
As we mentioned earlier, a CIB network is defined as a set of accounts working in a coordinated inauthentic way to promote false and manipulative information, and these networks have been taking part in the war propaganda in the Sudanese war since April 2023. Many networks supporting the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces began their misleading work and published a lot of content to implement the war propaganda agenda which included misleading, concealing the truth of the field situation and who is militarily advanced and hiding the truth about targeting civilians, and this is done by publishing misleading pictures and information.These networks directly attacked citizens and confirmed their involvement in the conflict. Some accounts affiliated with one of the army’s CIB networks published random photos of civilians and incited citizens and authorities to pursue them because they were considered part of the Rapid Support Forces, which put many of them in danger. This network used the hashtags (You are not safe #أنتم لستم أمنيين) and (civilian, you were betrayedخانوك يا مدني #).
Some of the network's publications
Some of the accounts that were involved in this network:
As shown in the graph below prepared by Crowd Tangle, after analysing these used hashtags, we found that from August 2023 to February 2024, 98 posts were published, all of which included the hashtag “(#YouAreNotSafe), and all of them contained photos and personal data of civilians, indicating that they work for the Rapid Support Forces, and calling for the necessity of arresting them.
And all those accounts used the copy-pasting technique, using the same content and hashtags over and over to increase the reach of this false and misleading content.
Recirculation of old posts or photos:
Hashtags were used (#Sudan, #Gaza, #Hamas) in a CIB network functioning on X which was an Emirati-Israeli network. The network was pushing an agenda about the corruption in the Sudanese army, and it claimed that there was a systematic attack from the Sudanese army towards the Christian minority in Sudan. They used existing photos and videos as new ones to support that narrative. This network served war propaganda by promoting internal discord in society and portraying the war as a religious sectarian one.
One of the claims that the network pushed for was that the Sudanese army deliberately bombed the Church of the Savior causing fire.
Some of the network's publications
The fire actually broke out in Omdurman, but it was in November 2023, and the clip was circulated again in March 2024 as a new event. In addition, the army and the Rapid Support Forces exchanged accusations about who was responsible for targeting the church, with some accusations holding the Rapid Support Forces responsible, while reports indicated that the army targeted the church.
After the analysis, it becomes clear to us that these accounts were working to spread a narrative that the Sudanese army is working under the command of terrorist groups, and these groups were working to direct the army to target non-Muslim minorities. The network also exploited many current events in its activity to support its narrative, which contributed to the spread of the information it published.
From the previous narrative, we can get a clear understanding of how the CIB networks worked to implement the war propaganda agenda with the false and manipulative information that they were sharing.
Some of the accounts that were involved in this network:
Amplifying Existing Narratives by traditional media
War propaganda works on the factor of exaggerating some existing narratives so that they become a reality through that exaggeration. This is what Sudan National Television worked on, as Amplified the narrative that the Rapid Support Forces receive regular support from the United Arab Emirates and that the army controls the situation and does not allow this aid to pass. For instance,Sudanese national television aired a clip supposedly showing the seizure of a shipment of “drones” coming from the United Arab Emirates to aid the Rapid Support Forces. However, the clip was later revealed by Beam Reports to be from the Sultanate of Oman and had nothing to do with Sudan; the news was fabricated.
Sudan National TV continued its support for the Sudanese army through coordinated war propaganda, in which it used some social media influencers and supporters of the army. The TV hosted the character of (Al-Ansrafi), (الانصرافي ) a mysterious influencer whose face does not appear in the clips he broadcasts. During the hosting, Al-Ansrafi stressed the superiority of the army and the weakness of the Rapid Support Forces and explained the extent of the progress of the Sudanese army.
The previous examples show how Sudan National Television played an important role in supporting the army through its war propaganda, which established in the minds of the recipients the military and field superiority of the army.
Example of misleading content published by national television
Breakout Scale:
The Breakout Scale seeks to define how effectively the content launched by influence operations spreads in three dimensions on social media, in the mainstream media, and in real life using factors that can be compared across different operations.This scale is divided into categories. According to our observation, the misleading content provided by the Sudanese national TV falls into the fourth category of the scale, which is the category in which the content is spread on TV, radio and social media.We have added this scale in order to show our observation of the extent of the spread of the misleading material published by Sudan National TV.
Breakout Sale Model
Narrative analysis
Incitement of fanaticism, tribalism, and hate speech
The method of inciting strife and fanaticism is one of the most crucial mechanisms of war propaganda, used by the parties involved in the war to create a foggy and divided society. In the Sudanese context, war propaganda flooded social media with racist phrases and hate speech that portrayed the war in Sudan as a war motivated by racist and regional motives.
For example, since the beginning of the war in Sudan, some groups have worked to transform the conflict in Sudan into a regional conflict before portraying this war as a civil war between some social components in Sudanese society. For some of those involved in this war, the matter may be regional and ethnic, but that does not represent the essence of the dispute, but some parties have worked to position it as the essence and basis.
Some entities have worked to formulate a narrative about the support of certain tribes for the Rapid Support Forces and others supporting the Sudanese army. We have noticed that hate speech towards some tribes in western Sudan has increased significantly after the outbreak of the war, as these tribes were described as part of the Rapid Support Forces.
War propaganda campaigns used many racist expressions to describe these tribes. We find that tribes such as (Misseriya and Rizeigat) faced waves of coordinated hate speech by war propaganda campaigns, and the use of the names of these tribes in hate speech increased significantly as the chart below shows.
These pictures show part of the use of tribal names in war propaganda campaigns (Misseriya and Rizeigat) .
Examples of hate speech targeting these tribes
The Conspiracy Theory
The war propaganda campaigns brought the concept of conspiracy theory to the surface to formulate the continuation of the war, considering that the war, according to their description, is not only between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, but rather it is a war in which external parties intervene, so it must continue until the external opponent is eliminated. The war propaganda campaigns exploited correct information about external support for the two parties to the conflict to formulate their narrative.
The supporters of both sides of the conflict formulated manipulative and inaccurate information to explain the conspiracy theory in the Sudanese scenario. We find that accounts Supporting the army exploited the available information about the UAE’s support for the Rapid Support Forces to spread misleading information about a leaked letter from the UAE’s Supreme National Security Council regarding the situation in Sudan and the extent of the Rapid Support Forces’ progress on the ground. The letter itself is forged and not true, but it has spread widely, supporting the continuation of the war in favour of the army because in this case it eliminates foreign interference.
At the same time, we find that some accounts supporting the Rapid Support Forces exploited the conspiracy theory to support their war propaganda, as they exploited the information circulating about Russia’s support for the Sudanese army and published a fabricated news story about the arrival of a Russian nuclear warhead carrier to Port Sudan. The news is fabricated and the image used with the claim was misleading, but it reinforced the concept of the continuation of the war from the Rapid Support Forces’ perspective because they are facing foreign intervention.
War propaganda is one of the most important mechanisms of war throughout history. It has contributed to changing history by achieving victory for one team over the other through its techniques that depend on manipulation, deception, and directing public opinion towards false and misleading concepts.War propaganda is one of the most powerful weapons of war because it attacks the recipient’s mind and influences the decisions they make later and its impact extends deeper than we sometimes imagine. War propaganda was used in the Sudan war that has been raging since April 2023 in all its forms, including slogans, hashtags, copy-pasting, hate speech, and conspiracy theories from abroad. The war propaganda campaigns also used CIB networks, and all of these techniques worked individually and simultaneously to create a foggy information horizon that of course has an impact on the military opponent, but the real victim were the citizens, as they lost the ability to obtain correct information due to the manipulation practised by war propaganda and misinformation campaigns.
