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Dakar, Senegal — <\/span>A pro-Russian activist accused of supporting failed coup<\/a> Appeared in court in Benin on Wednesday South Africa<\/a> On separate charges of attempting to leave that country illegally with the help of a member of a far-right white nationalist group.<\/p>\n Kemi Seba<\/a>A prominent Beninese influencer has been charged with criminal conspiracy and immigration violations. He also faces extradition benin<\/a>Where he was declared wanted for “inciting rebellion” after publicly supporting a failed coup last December.<\/p>\n Seba, whose legal name is Stelio Gilles Robert Capo Chichi, was born in France to Beninese parents, but was stripped of his French citizenship.<\/p>\n He remains in custody after a judge on Wednesday postponed his bail hearing until May 11.<\/p>\n Here’s what you need to know about the worker:<\/p>\n Seba, who has nearly 1.5 million followers on Facebook, is the leader of the Pan-Africanist Emergency, a group he founded in 2015 that describes itself as a “black rights organization specializing in issues related to sovereignty, neocolonialism and the promotion of social justice.”<\/p>\n He has also gained a large following on social media using viral videos that attack France’s political and economic influence in Africa, while advocating for the military junta that has seized power in the region mostly due to anti-French sentiments.<\/p>\n He has often been accused of promoting Russian propaganda in Africa, but defends his activities as “pan-African”. Seba has publicly praised Russian President Vladimir Putin and aligned himself with a pro-Russian network linked to the late Wagner mercenary group chief. Yevgeny Prigozhin<\/a>According to the US State Department. <\/p>\n SEBA has also met Russian officials on several occasions. He has denied allegations of being a Russian agent.<\/p>\n France convicted him several times of inciting racial hatred and he was stripped of his French citizenship in 2024. Shortly afterwards, he was issued a diplomatic passport. from niger<\/a> military junta, which made him a “special advisor” to the country’s leader, General Abdourahmane Tchiani<\/a>.<\/p>\n Beninese authorities declared Seba wanted in December after he posted a video supporting troops trying to topple the government of Benin President Patrice Talon. The coup collapsed within hours following the intervention of loyalist forces supported by Nigerian fighter planes and regional troops.<\/p>\n When the coup attempt was revealed, Seba celebrated in his country of citizenship. In a video that later went viral, he called it a “day of liberation” and praised the rebels as “patriots.” Benin issued an international arrest warrant for him on 12 December, charging him with incitement to subversion.<\/p>\n When he was arrested earlier this month, South African police released a statement saying the activist “is in fact a wanted fugitive in Benin in connection with crimes against the state.”<\/p>\n Seba was arrested along with his son and a remote South African activist during a sting operation in a Pretoria shopping centre. Police said they foiled an alleged plan to illegally cross the border into neighboring Zimbabwe and eventually reach Europe.<\/p>\n The man charged with arranging that crossing was Fran\u00e7ois van der Merwe, a member of the Beitreinders \u2013 a South African far-right group that advocates the creation of a white-only Afrikaner and Boer state and says it rejects multiculturalism. He was accused of accepting approximately R250,000 ($15,000) to facilitate Seba’s cross-border activities.<\/p>\n Analysts say the alliance between a self-described African liberation activist and a far-right white nationalist activist may be less surprising than it seems.<\/p>\n Christoph Premat, a political scientist at Stockholm University, says that Seba has long embraced “ethno-separatism”, a belief in strict racial separation that he shares with Bitreinders from the opposite end of the spectrum.<\/p>\n The Kremlin has also engaged South African far-right groups in recent years, including those claiming to defend Afrikaner and Boer identities, according to Burgert Senekal, a research fellow at the University of the Free State in South Africa who has studied Russian information operations in the country.<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n