Facebook announced the suspension of three networks of Russian accounts that allegedly tried to interfere in the politics of eight African countries. All accounts were linked to a single Russian businessman who has close ties to the country’s president, and who is accused of meddling in the U.S.’s 2016 elections.

The social media platform said that all the networks were connected to “entities linked to Russian businessman Yevgeniy Prigozhin” a Russian magnate linked to certain politicians, and accused by the North American Special Counsel Robert Mueller of being part of Russia’s schemes to influence the U.S.’s election processes, through covert campaigns in social media.

The network targeted the following countries:

• Mozambique
• Democratic republic of Congo
• Sudan
• Libya
• Cote di’voire
• Cameroon
• Central-African Republic
• Madagascar

Around 200 fake accounts would have been used to reach over a million followers. The actions taken include the publication of material relating to local happenings and regional politics, as well as the spreading of media messages controlled by the estate. Around 90.000 ads were purchased for this purpose.

In some African countries, the Russian networks worked alongside local citizens to mask the origins of the messages and have a greater reach, explained Nathaniel Gleicher, head of Cybersecurity & Info Ops Policy at Facebook. “There’s a type of joining of forces between local actors and Russian ones. The local ones are aware of who is behind this operation,” he added.

Facebook didn’t say which local people or organizations worked alongside the accounts linked to Prigonzhin. Stanford University researchers, working alongside Facebook in its investigation, said that the companies included the Wagner Group, a bureau of military contractors that, according to sources, had previously claimed to have done clandestine missions in Syria and Ukraine the name of the Russian government.