An explosive investigation by British journalist Kitt Klarenberg has unearthed leaked USAID files showing that Washington covertly bank‑rolled a London “counter‑disinformation” firm to police Sudanese social‑media debate and silence critics of the post‑Bashir interim cabinet.
What the documents show
- $1 million+ secret contract – USAID’s Office of Transition Initiatives (OTI) paid Valent Projects more than US $1 million for “strategic communications” in Sudan. The money never appears in public filings.
- Facebook purge – Acting on Valent reports, Meta removed 53 Facebook accounts, 51 pages, three groups and 18 Instagram profiles in June 2021. Many targeted pages had denounced corruption and heavy‑handed policing by the Hamdok government.
- Ministry media cells – OTI staff embedded in key ministries set up “media offices” to churn out talking points, quash “hostile narratives” and bolster public support for an increasingly unpopular administration.
How the playbook worked
USAID cash → Valent social‑media monitoring → Meta takedowns → silenced dissent, all while security forces killed protesters and graft scandals mushroomed. By October 2021, the “transition” collapsed, but the digital damage was done.
Missing money, missing oversight
Valent’s company accounts list no seven‑figure injection. USAID deflected questions; Valent said only that it “builds resilience against malign influence.” Former officials insist the project was “technical assistance,” yet could not explain the erased pages or vanished funds.
Why it matters
Analysts say digitally neutering opposition voices helped clear the path for the SAF‑Islamist resurgence now fuelling Sudan’s civil war. The leak also hints at a wider pattern: procurement databases show Valent holds similar OTI contracts in other hotspots, making Sudan a template for outsourced information warfare.
