A viral video showing bodies heaped in what appears to be a mass grave has been purported to originate from Nigeria.
On August 30, an X account with the handle @emmasocket posted a video showing men dressed in camouflage shooting at fleeing people.
The account bore the picture of Simon Ekpa, a self-acclaimed disciple of Nnamdi Kanu, detained leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).
In the chaotic video that appears to be shot in an uninhabited region, piles of bodies are seen dumped in a long stretch of hollow ground.
“Let the world know the secret war going on in the land of Biafra,” the X user tweeted.
“We can not take this anymore, and the only solution to this madness is for the zoo called Nigeria to be disintegrated. BIAFRAN all over the world @simon_ekpa and the entire cabinet members are here to serve us.”
As of the time of this report, the tweet has gathered over 1k views, 76 likes, and 60 retweets.
On August 31, @AmadiohaOd3671, an X account with a much larger audience, reposted the video claiming that “their main plan is not actually islamisation but land grabbling and total control of Nigeria by Fulani and Western interest.”
Although the account did not specify who the accusations were levelled at, previous claims in the past have suggested that the same religious status of the president and vice president is an attempt to Islamise the country.
So far, the post has gathered 48.3k views, 819 retweets, 627 comments, and over 100 likes and bookmarks each.
Did the massacre happen in Nigeria?
VERIFICATION
To trace likely earlier appearances of the video, TheCable subjected multiple screenshots of the video to a Google reverse image search.
Results from the search showed that the earliest version of the video surfaced on August 26.
According to the accompanying post, the killings were caused by the Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM), Al Qaeda-linked militant group, in Burkina Faso.
The post said JNIM killed over 200 and injured 140 while villagers were assisting security forces in digging trenches to build defend outposts.
Some bots also reposted the video with the same report.
On August 28, War Noir, an independent weapons and conflicts researcher, posted the video, adding that the incident happened in the Burkinabe town of Barsalogho.
Media reports confirmed that the attack happened on August 24 with women and children among the victims.
The United Nations (UN) described the attack as horrific and urged Burkina Faso’s transition authorities to ensure that those responsible are held to account.
In addition, Edward Buba, director, of defence media operations, issued a statement on Monday distancing the event from Nigeria.
“It must be noted that the incident never took place in Nigeria. Rather, it sadly took place in a nearby African country faced with terrorism,” Buba said.
“On the whole, the public is urged to be circumspect of the antics of the terrorist to propagate misinformation, disinformation, and fake news as part of their war propaganda effort. These situations are not uncommon in war,” he added.
VERDICT
Claims that the attack in a viral video showing bodies in a mass grave happened in Nigeria are false. The attack happened in Burkina Faso.
