In August 2025, Eyal Yakoby, a media personality in the United States, posted a video showing people fleeing their homes, claiming it depicted Christians escaping “ethnic cleansing in Nigeria”.
In the less than two-minute video posted by Yakoby, some people, including children, while carrying their load, were seen leaving their homes for another location.
“Thousands of Christians are forced to flee ethnic cleansing in Nigeria as Islamist groups commit nonstop massacres. This video is from last year, and the slaughters continue because the world stays silent. When will more people speak out?” Yakoby captioned the video.
The video was credited to an X user identified as @OliLondonTV, who had posted the video in May 2024. The X user had posted the video to support comments on the killings of Christians in Nigeria.
VERIFICATION
When CableCheck analysed keyframes of the images of the video on Google Lens, the results showed that the earliest versions of the video on the internet were posted in February 2024.
The social media accounts that published the videos’ earliest versions identified the location as the Democratic Republic of Congo.
On February 8, 2024, an Instagram account — Goma_all_stars — published the video, adding that people were fleeing from their homes due to the war in Sake, a town in the eastern province of North Kivu in Congo.
The video was also published here and here.
CableCheck also searched credible media platforms to confirm if there was a violent attack in the North Kivu province of Congo at the time the video appeared online.
On February 7, 2024, Reuters reported that thousands of residents in Goma fled their homes after M23 rebels launched attacks against the Congolese army.
Reuters also reported that residents of villages around Sake in Masisi territory, following clashes between M23 rebels and the Congolese army.
In the video, the colour of the number plate of the car that passed through was yellow, which is not used in Nigeria.
VERDICT
The video of people fleeing their homes as a result of alleged Christian ethnic cleansing is not from Nigeria.
