Wagner's disinformation network across Africa: France denies asylum to insider turned whistleblower

By FRANCE 24 English

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For Spotlight, François Picard is pleased to welcome Lea Perruchon, Journalist with Forbidden Stories. She exposes a collision of competing interests: journalism, France's national security and their complex asylum policy. Ephrem Yalike-Ngonzo, a former participant in Russia's disinformation campaign in the Central African Republic, turned whistleblower, offered crucial testimony that helped uncover the operations of the Wagner-linked disinformation network across Africa. Following an intervention reportedly supported by the French presidency to evacuate him and his family from imminent danger, French authorities changed course and abruptly rejected his asylum application. Perruchon frames the case not simply as an individual immigration dispute but as a broader test of democratic states' willingness to protect those who expose covert authoritarian influence operations. She highlights an unresolved contradiction: the same testimony that contributed to investigations of significant p

Tags: Emmanuel Macron, FRANCE 24, FRANCE 24 guest, Forbidden Stories, RFI