[News] Collapsing Empire: US creates new African psyops unit

[Anti-Imperialist News]

english.almayadeen.net
<https://english.almayadeen.net/articles/analysis/collapsing-empire--us-creates-new-african-psyops-unit>
Collapsing Empire: US creates new African psyops unit
Kit Klarenberg
August 7, 2026
------------------------------

>From boots on the ground to battles for the mind. Kit Klarenberg examines
the Pentagon's new psychological operations unit and Washington's bid to
reclaim influence in Africa.

   - [image: Collapsing Empire: US creates new African psyops unit]
   <https://alpha-en-media.almayadeen.net/media/image/2026/8/7/1977e5b8-77fb-427b-99e6-98c64e87ccf7.png?width=1000>
   As its military influence in Africa declines, Washington is turning to
   psychological warfare (illustrated by Batoul Chamas; Al Mayadeen English)

The Pentagon has activated a new psychological operations unit targeting
Africa, tasked with “expanding the military’s ability to influence foreign
audiences” across the continent. The heavily hyped launch occurs against a
backdrop of dramatically and irreversibly waning Western influence
<https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/factbox-au-revoir-africa-france-s-fading-military-presence/3633836>
and power in every sphere across the continent. As Africans steadily rid
themselves of unwelcome foreign occupiers and oppressors, the US is forced
to rely on strategies of manipulation to stem the tide, which have already
failed spectacularly. They will surely misfire yet again.

Based in Fort Bragg, North Carolina - home to AFRICOM - the psyops faction
<https://taskandpurpose.com/news/psyop-company-africa-command/> is known as
“Drongo Company”. Its nickname is inspired by a bird native to Africa,
known for precisely imitating other species’ warning calls and using other
deception tactics to drive other animals away from food. The Pentagon
reportedly “selected the name to reflect the unit’s focus on influencing
perceptions and behavior.” Fittingly, a May 2014
<https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1249723> *Science *paper found
the drongo can mimic other species’ sounds and manipulate adversaries with
unparalleled, almost human sophistication
<https://web.archive.org/web/20140507043852/http:/news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/05/140501-drongo-kalahari-desert-meerkat-mimicry-science>
.

*Task & Purpose *notes Drongo Company’s creation “comes amid a shift in US
military strategy in Africa,” which is quite an understatement. Washington
is on the run across the continent, with combat units and occupation forces
being withdrawn from multiple countries over recent years. In September 2024
<https://thearabweekly.com/us-military-completes-safe-orderly-withdrawal-niger-after-failed-attempts-stay>,
over 1,000 soldiers departed Niger, while a $100 million drone base was
abandoned. An anti-ISIS mission in Nigeria controversially launched
<https://theconversation.com/us-troops-in-nigeria-to-help-fight-terrorism-could-end-up-making-it-worse-analyst-278112>
this March was abruptly terminated in July, due to a cataclysmic inability
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0Lsmu2YmaE&t> to achieve its objectives.

Drongo Company is an attempt by the Empire to reassert narrative dominance
over Africa, as its military capabilities across the continent and beyond
constantly shrink in size and potency. An official US Army report openly
states <https://www.army.mil/article/29328/4th_pog_words_conquer>, “The art
of psyops relies on persuasion rather than physical force.” This entails
the exploitation of “mental factors…to evoke specific emotions, attitudes
and behaviors.” The ultimate goal “is to persuade enemy, neutral and
friendly nations and forces to take favorable actions toward the US and its
allies.”

An AFRICOM factsheet
<https://www.africom.mil/psychological-operations-psyop> on psyops claims
local campaigns are targeted at militant groups, such as al-Qaeda, Boko
Haram, and ISIS. Parenthetical mention is also made to “malign state
actors” being targets, in the context of advancing “US interests". As
a *Military.com
*report acknowledges
<https://www.military.com/army-officially-activates-new-psychological-operations-unit-for-africa>,
this is a reference to “competition with foreign governments.”
Specifically, “Russia and China have expanded their political, economic and
security activities across Africa” in recent years, which the Empire has
been singularly unable to counter via military force.

Drongo Company is thus being deployed for “an information contest that
extends beyond conventional battlefields.” The Pentagon is extremely
sensitive, however, to “skeptical audiences” seeing through their psyops.
*Military.com* further notes that while AFRICOM claims its psychological
operations adhere strictly to US law and Pentagon policies prohibiting
targeting US citizens, these prohibitions only apply to *intended*
audiences. There are no mechanisms in place preventing Stateside spectators
from being deluged - theoretically illegally - with Drongo Company’s
sophisticated, clandestine military psychological warfare offensives,
especially online.

Quite some informational assault is planned. Drongo Company will wage its
psyops campaigns via “both established and emerging communication
technologies…[including] print media, radio broadcasts, text messaging,
direct engagement, television programming, social media platforms, and
online resources.” These information sources will be blitzed with
“persuasive messages intended to change how selected audiences think or
act.” The need to “ensure targeted audiences consider…messages credible” is
of paramount importance. After all, “adversaries or skeptical audiences”
will reflexively dismiss obvious “American propaganda”:

“Drongo Company’s effectiveness will depend on more than its ability to
produce messages. Its soldiers will need regional and cultural knowledge,
language skills, accurate intelligence and credible African partners
capable of reaching communities that may distrust communications associated
with the US military.”
‘Role players’

Strikingly, Drongo Company is formally part of the US Army’s notorious 7th
Psychological Operations Battalion. The Pentagon’s premier psychological
warfare unit, since May 2022 7th POB has released
<https://taskandpurpose.com/news/psywar-recruiting-commercial-ghosts-machine/>
a series of disturbing, abstract recruitment videos. In the first
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA4e0NqyYMw&list=PLe2Y_KU2T3AFXtiU-nNBIBa3QHm3ASyGL&index=4>,
dramatic, rapid cut scenes are interspersed with eerie, monochrome cartoon
clips, backed by an aggressive soundtrack. All along, text on the screen
proclaims:

“You’ll find us in the shadows, at the tip of the spear. War is evolving,
and all the world’s a stage. Anything we touch is a weapon. We can deceive,
persuade, change, influence, inspire...We are everywhere.”

Despite such ominous hype, Drongo Company’s activation suggests a
longstanding, initially much-vaunted 7th POB unit previously “forged for
Africa” operational from 2017 onwards fell far short of its bold
objectives. In February that year, the US Army published an essay
celebrating
<https://www.army.mil/article/182148/the_crucible_psyop_battalion_forged_for_africa>
the new psyops division’s launch. An accompanying essay recounted how its
operatives were deployed “into the gray zones of Africa where alliances can
be fluid and the people are as diverse as the many landscapes,” following
elaborate training exercises in Florida:

“Influencing a population to create lasting change when you don’t look,
sound, or dress like that population is a tricky proposition. Cultural
training, language proficiency, and an indigenous approach can go pretty
far towards closing the gap, but true effectiveness is only achieved
through airtight relationships with host nation partners.”

Hence, this training saw 7th Psychological Operations Battalion operatives
deployed to simulated environments in the fictional African nation of Conch
Republic. Under the exercise’s auspices, “the government of Conch had
requested support from the US Embassy” to combat “a bevy of societal
problems from drug trafficking to domestic terrorism, to combat these
ills.” It featured live-action components, in which US police and Navy
operatives and African “civic leaders” were “role players”, with detailed
characters.

Their roles included “local radio disc jockeys, roving reporters, and even
the police” in the fictional African country, who “would ambush teams in
broad daylight and attempt to gain information, curry favor, or even
solicit a bribe to make a tough situation disappear.” A synthetic local
social media infrastructure was also constructed - “a dynamic, reactive and
proactive environment…with analogs to Facebook, Twitter, and even
Craigslist.” Through this online nexus, the Battalion could “affect and
inform” different audiences in the fictional Conch Republic.

The social media simulation reportedly “provided an invaluable feedback
mechanism that showed which messages were heard and to what extent they
were understood.” Elsewhere, “the unit broke new ground…through the use of
new communications equipment and series development software,” utilising a
variety of “information transmission devices…useful in influence
campaigns.” Resultantly, 7th POB operatives could supposedly “hit the
ground” when deployed to Africa, delivering “cogent, impactful” psyops
“aimed right at the heart of the population.”

“By all accounts, the juice is worth the squeeze. Community leaders take
pride in supporting a high caliber exercise, the partnered agencies have
found unique ways to meet their own training objectives through the
scenarios, and the teams heading out the door are better prepared; prepared
to amplify African solutions to African challenges, and prepared to survive
if the world falls down around them.”
‘Indigenous approach’

The US Army essay on 7th POB’s then-new African assignment revealed,
“there’s a saying in the PSYOP community” - “[Army Special Operations
Forces] makes change happen. PSYOP makes change last.” A senior military
advisor to the division boasted how 7th POB’s activities represented the
apotheosis of US psychological operations - “a place where science and
technique blend.” The essay bombastically concluded by characterising
psyops as “the long game, where changes in behavior are measured not over a
deployment, but often over years.”

Judged by this metric, the “long game” played by 7th POB throughout the
continent over the past decade has been decisively lost. In May, AFRICOM
commander Dagvin Anderson laid bare
<http://https_www.africom.mil/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.africom.mil%2Farticle%2F36565%2Fafricom-commander-says-continent-at-crossroads-of-global-commerce-security>
in Congressional testimony
<https://www.congress.gov/119/meeting/house/119289/witnesses/HMTG-119-AS00-Wstate-AndersonD-20260519.pdf>
how a “75% reduction” in US military and intelligence “posture” regionally
during this time - “coupled with a drawdown of allies in the region” - has
produced a “black hole” in Africa. He lamented at length how this gaping
chasm in Western dominance has been rapidly filled by China, Iran, and
Russia.

Beijing’s “aggressive investments” in Africa’s “mining, infrastructure, and
transportation sectors” have supplanted Western control over “critical
minerals and strategic infrastructure.” On top of major profit hits and
supply chain disruption, China’s increasing domination in industrial fields
reliant on these resources - ranging from “electric vehicles, consumer
electronics, and advanced military technologies” - represents “a structural
vulnerability for the US Defense Industrial Base.” Meanwhile, Russia’s
rising economic and military footprint on the continent is “undermining US
influence and limiting NATO’s reach on its southern flank.”

Anderson claimed Russian paramilitary forces “insulate and protect regimes”
in Africa with which Moscow has close relations, “under the guise of
counter-terrorism operations.” However, the AFRICOM chief contradictorily
acknowledged the threat of extremist militancy throughout the region
Russian military advisors seek to deter was very real. In particular,
Anderson cited how al-Qaeda-affiliate JNIM aims to destabilise the
revolutionary governments of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, to the “extent
of securing the resources and trappings of a nation state” in the manner of
ISIS <https://www.kitklarenberg.com/p/how-cia-and-mi6-created-isis>.

AFRICOM’s commander neglected to mention how France and Ukraine have heavily
supported
<https://www.kitklarenberg.com/p/ukraines-secret-al-qaeda-invasion> JNIM’s
counter-revolutionary activities in the Sahel. An April essay published by
*Militarnyi*, Kiev’s most prominent <https://militarnyi.com/en/advertising/>
military news site, makes clear the objective of these military and
intelligence machinations is out-and-out regime change, explicitly in
service of furthering the Empire’s interests in Africa. Drongo Company must
be understood as the psychological warfare component of this proxy assault
on the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) and the continent more widely.

Evidently, Africans must remain vigilant. Counter-revolutionary forces seen
and unseen are perpetually on the offensive, determined to shatter national
and continental unity, strangle sovereignty, and ensure the region remains
dominated by pliant and brutal puppet regimes facilitating untrammelled
Western economic rape and pillage. Yet, 7th POB’s supposed “cultural
training, language proficiency, and indigenous approach” from 2017 onwards
soundtracked an absolutely extraordinary collapse in the Empire’s clout
throughout Africa. Drongo Company’s repeat attempt may end with
Washington’s final, long-overdue retreat from the continent entirely.
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