Demonstration remains a centuries-old avenue by which diverse people have expressed their grievances and made their demands known to governments and institutions. In many countries today, peaceful protest is recognized as one of the fundamental rights of citizens. Though not explicitly stated, it is enshrined in their constitution in the form of freedom of peaceful assembly and association, freedom of speech, and freedom of expression and opinion. However, demonstrations over the years have taken one of three combinations: organized and peaceful, disorganized and violent, or a mix of both. 

In Africa, protests have encompassed the assembly of people in central parks, squares, or stadiums; long marches on major streets and highways; the wielding of placards, banners, and tree branches; chants; raised fists; tyre burning; the use of megaphones, the waving of clean or smeared national flags, police escort; a team of medical personnel and ambulances; activists, celebrities, and influencers; online mobilization and hashtags; and on a lighter note, refreshments, and entertainment in some cases. But recently, a new trend in African demonstrations against the backdrop of twenty-first-century great power competition between the US, Russia, and China, is the waving of the Russian flag. A good place to zoom in on the map of Africa in this regard is none other than the western part of the volatile Sahel region. 

In the Sahel, a semi-arid region that has experienced unabated violence of Islamic militant groups linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, the horizontal white, blue, and red band flag of the Russian Federation has repeatedly been sighted among military coup supporters and indeed pockets of anti-French and anti-government demonstrations. On 27 May 2021, in Mali’s capital, Bamako, protesters in support of coup leader, Colonel Assimi Goïta, and against France, waved the Russian flag. In French-speaking Burkina Faso, supporters of 24 January 2022 coup d’état, some of whom took to the streets of the state capital, Ouagadougou, to celebrate the military takeover, were seen holding the Russian flag. Again, following the second military coup on 30 September 2022, Burkinabés were on the streets of Ouagadougou where they waved the Russian flag in early October, this time around, in protest against their former colonial ruler, France, and to an extent the sub-regional organization—the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). In neighbouring Niger Republic, also a former French colony, a few tailors in the capital, Niamey, experienced an increase in demand for the Russian flag after the democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, was dislodged on 26 July 2023 by men in military fatigue. All three Sahelian countries, which in a joint statement announced their membership withdrawal from ECOWAS on 28 January 2024, had their first summit of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) on 6 July 2024 in Niamey, Niger Republic. (The AES was formed on 16 September 2023 in response to the insecurity situation in the Sahel region.)