Simon Ekpa, a Finland-based Nigerian and self-proclaimed separatist leader, has posted a video purportedly showing dead bodies of some Christians in Zamfara State with a claim that their attackers were sponsored by the Nigerian government.
In the 57-second footage posted by Ekpa, two persons dressed in army camouflage were observed riding a motorcycle in an area with tens of lifeless bodies littering the environs. Two gun-wielding persons also spoke to the two on the motorcycle.
Ekpa, who has over 168,000 followers on his X handle, posted the video on August 27, 2024 with a caption that read:
“Breaking; The Nigeria government sponsored and supervised terror attack against Christians in Zamfara state. This is what we prevented in Biafraland”.
The video has garnered over 35,000 views with more than 2,000 reposts and over 2,000 likes as of September 1, 2024.
CLAIM
Nigerian government sponsored terror-attack against Christians in Zamfara State.
THE FINDINGS
Checks show that the claim is MISLEADING as the attack happened in Barsalogho community in Burkina Faso and not related to Christians in Nigeria’s Zamfara State.
When this fact-checker conducted a Google Reverse Image search on some screenshots from the video, the result revealed multiple online publications which reported the killings in the Burkina Faso town.
A report published on August 25, 2024 by BSC Happy Portal, a Serbian news platform, stated that the incident happened in Barsalogho community in Burkina Faso.
“Between 100 and 200 people died in the terrorist attack that took place in the town of Barsalogo in Burkina Faso, and among the victims there are civilians and soldiers, security sources said today.
“Armed terrorist groups attacked the place, 45 kilometers north of the town of Kaya, yesterday, while the population was helping security forces dig trenches to protect army security posts”, the report, when translated into English language with the aid of Google Translate, read.
Further checks show that another news outlet, ETtoday, on August 28, also published a similar report which had some images from the Barsalogho incident in Burkina Faso in its traditional Chinese language.
“A terrorist incident occurred in central Burkina Faso, West Africa. On the 24th, while residents of the Barsalogho region were digging trenches around the town, they were opened fire by militants suspected of being jihadists from the Islamic extremist organization, resulting in at least 400 deaths.
“Reuters” reported that jihadist groups related to al Qaeda and the Islamic State entered Burkina Faso from neighboring Mali nearly 10 years ago, causing the country to fall into a security crisis, even in 2022. Triggered two coups, and the attack in Barsalogho on the 24th was the deadliest incident after the coup,” parts of the report, when translated from Chinese to English using Google Translate, read.
An X user, @War_Noir, posted the same video on August 28, 2024 with a caption that read: #BurkinaFaso (#Sahel) 🇧🇫: #JNIM (part of #AlQaeda) killed 200 villagers digging trenches in #Barsalogho, #Sanmatenga.
“Militants used #Chinese 🇨🇳 Type 67-2 machine gun, Type 56 rifles, #Serbia-made 🇷🇸 Zastava M05E1 rifle, #Bulgaria-made 🇧🇬 MG-1M machine gun, AKM pattern rifles”.
This fact-checker further observed that multiple credible media platforms including Le Monde, Reuters and Al Jazeera, among others reported the attack on the Burkinabe town.
UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, also condemned the killing of around 200 people in the Burkinabe town of Barsalogho at the weekend, which left a further 140 injured.
However, Premium Times reported that many bandits were killed why attempting to raid Matuzgi, a community in Talatar Mafara Local Government Area of Zamfara State, on Tuesday, August 27, 2024.
“Residents said 35 bandits were killed by the local vigilante and the state’s Community Protection Guard (CPG) stationed in the community.
“Residents said soldiers later arrived in the area and joined the fight, forcing the bandits to retreat from Matusgi,” part of the report added.
THE VERDICT
The claim by Simon Ekpa that the Nigerian government sponsored terror-attack against Christians in Zamfara State is MISLEADING; the video showed an incident which occurred in Barsalogho town in Burkina Faso and unrelated to Zamfara State.
