Mali: Claude used for the ‘mass surveillance’ of 25 million SIM cards

NAIROBI – A ‘mass surveillance’ platform developed by a single user of Claude, capable of monitoring 25 million SIM cards in Mali and providing data and material to the coup-led junta in Bamako. This is one of the cases of ‘misuse’ of artificial intelligence highlighted by industry giant Anthropic in a report documenting activities identified and countered between November 2025 and August 2026.

The investigation describes a total of nine different cases originating in Russia, Iran and Turkey, with repercussions across the Gulf, South Asia, Africa and Europe. The sub-Saharan region features in the Malian case and another documented incident in the vicinity of the Sahel: the removal of an account managed by ‘a Russian-speaking actor’ in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, linked to ‘an information manipulation operation’ in favour of Moscow.

Claude as ‘manpower’ for Mali’s intelligence services

According to Anthropic’s report, the Malian user exploited Claude as an ‘engineering workforce’ to ‘develop a national interception and surveillance platform’. The system, renamed Lakana 360, ‘targeted’ an audience of 25 million users spread across three mobile network operators and provided material to the Agence Nationale de la Sécurité d’État, Bamako’s state intelligence agency.

The platform enabled in-depth analysis of data from the Sahelian country, collecting and filtering telephone records, text messages and voice calls, including ‘the additional interception of voice traffic via Mali’s mobile networks’. The report states that the system was programmed with the explicit aim and premise of circumventing the legal requirements for the disclosure of data. The Malian user trained Claude to ‘generate intelligence dossiers on any telephone number under surveillance’, without requiring the presentation of a valid court order.

The Malian junta came to power following a series of coups between 2020 and 2021, in the wake of the coup that swept through Burkina Faso (2022), Niger (2023) and several other governments across West and Central Africa during the four-year period from 2019 to 2023. The government has already faced several allegations of human rights violations and the suppression of political dissent, as well as controversy over its relationship with Russian contractors from Africa Corps, the former private military company Wagner. Moscow is accused of manipulating information and engaging in digital propaganda, including activities now contested and highlighted by the Anthropic report in the case of the Central African Republic as well.