Open source investigations

The concept of debt-trap diplomacy has been widely used in recent years, including by world leaders. Most of the time, it is associated with the People’s Republic of China, particularly when bilateral agreements which are part of the Belt and Road Initiative are signed between the Chinese and other developing nations. But what exactly does… Continue reading

In October 2016, a respected US news organization, BuzzFeed, published an investigative report about the 2009-2010 Ghana-Kosmos Energy dispute. The article (https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/dinograndoni/oil-in-ghana), titled ‵How Hillary Clinton’s State Department Fought For Oil 5,000 Miles Away′, exposed Johnnie Carson’s and Riva Levinson’s actions against Ghana’s interest. Asked by BuzzFeed to comment on the revelations, both Carson and… Continue reading

Johnnie Carson was supposed to be an independent international observer of Ghana’s 2016 electoral process, but he wasn’t. Instead, the former US diplomat colluded with Nana, working closely with NPP’s foreign consultants Riva Levinson and KRL International. In his 2016 acceptance speech, Nana Akufo-Addo voiced his thanks to “the strong observer mission from our friends… Continue reading

The main problem with African democracy is that it’s almost non-existent. Out of the 44 Sub-Saharan countries measured by the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index in 2019, only one was a full democracy – Mauritius, with a score of 8.22. Another six countries were catalogued as flawed democracies: Botswana (7.81), Cape Verde (7.78), South Africa… Continue reading

Riva Levinson, the consultant who led Nana Akufo-Addo’s 2016 presidential campaign, is frequently hired by dictators, autocrats, guerrilla leaders and corrupt politicians to whitewash their crimes. Levinson did PR for Somali dictator Siad Barre even as he was massacring civilians. She was hired by Jonas Savimbi, leader of Unita, an Angolan separatist group funded by… Continue reading

Following the ousting of the former president, Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe has embarked on a path of openness that seemed to be unimaginable a couple of years ago. The new president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, has pledged to re-engage with the international community and subsequently normalize relations between them and Zimbabwe, a move seen by all observers as… Continue reading

Everywhere we look around the globe, we sometimes spot a country that is filled with paradoxes – but none come closer to this situation than the Democratic Republic of Congo, located in Central Africa. The second largest country in Africa (and largest in Sub-Saharan Africa), with a population of over 78 million people, Congo might… Continue reading

The Kenyan Supreme Court has annulled the results of the Presidential election that was held last month, citing major irregularities „in the transmission of results” all across the country. The electoral commission (IEBC) has been accused by the opposition, led by Mr. Odinga, that it colluded with the Jubilee Alliance, the party that backed incumbent… Continue reading

The refugee crisis that has been unfolding before our eyes in the past few years might soon come to a halt in the Mediterranean region – the Italian government has taken controversial steps in order to stem the flow of migrants into the country, by drafting a code of conduct for NGOs (non-governmental organisations) that… Continue reading

  As previously reported by Open Source Investigations and various other international media outlets, the Kenyan election of 2017 was the perfect battleground for the deployment of new-media influence mechanisms on a national scale, via the use of data mining and data analysis processes, combined with strategic political communication. These efforts were employed by the… Continue reading