A video showing a huge crowd protesting on streets has surfaced online with a claim that it depicts residents of Burkina Faso expressing support for the country’s military leader, Ibrahim Traoré.
An X account, @Yamiakajones, posted the video with a caption thus Traoré:
“Not even in a history of humans the world rallied behind one person like this……long live Ibrahim Traore.”
The post has garnered over 850,000 views with more than 10,000 reposts and over 41,000 likes as of May 4, 2025.
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A TikTok account, @mypaddy.tv, also posted the same video with a caption that read:
Protesters across Africa demand end to foreign influence in Burkina Faso.
CLAIM
Video shows Burkinabè expressing support for Burkina Faso military leader, Ibrahim Traore.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub revealed that the posts are MISLEADING, as the video shows a protest in Serbia, not Burkina Faso.
Ibrahim Traoré, the military leader of Burkina Faso came into power following a coup in September 2022 amid growing anti-French sentiments in the Sahel region.
Since then, a wave of social media content has attempted to portray Traore as a fearless nationalist who defied Western powers. For example, false claim had circulated that he rejected an invitation to former U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2025. Another false claim also noted that significant gold deposits were recently discovered under his leadership.
Our fact-checkers conducted a Google Reverse Image Search on some keyframes in the video. One of the footages led us to a post by an X user, @fafothefirst, in March 2025 who stated that the video showed an anti-government protest in Belgrade, Serbia.
Another post by a Serbian user on Facebook indicated that the video was taken on March 15, 2025. Comments under the posts also indicated that the video was taken in Serbia. The video can also be seen here with a caption indicating that the protest happened in Serbia.
More than 100,000 people took to the streets of Belgrade in a massive anti-corruption protest, arriving from across Serbia by car, motorbike, bicycle, and on foot to voice their outrage at the government and demand accountability for the Novi Sad train station collapse in November 2024.
The Novi Sad train station collapse was one of the deadliest infrastructure disasters in Serbia’s recent history. A section of the station’s newly constructed canopy gave way during peak hours, killing 15 people and injuring dozens more.
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Waving flags, blowing whistles and airhorns, and chanting the movement’s slogan “Pump it!”, the demonstrators marched through the city and gathered between the National Assembly and Slavija Square, where they held a 15-minute silence in honour of the 15 lives lost in the tragedy — a disaster widely seen as a consequence of government corruption and negligence.
All the surrounding streets were packed with protesters, and mobile phone lines and the internet were seriously disrupted. The Serbian Interior Ministry estimated the numbers attending the student-led protest at 107,000 people, making the protest one of the largest demonstrations ever seen in the city. A video of the protest was also captured here by CBS NEWS Chicago and published on YouTube on March 16, 2025. A Reddit user, @vuxeee, also shared photos from the protest here.
Our fact-checkers also identified landmarks in the video, such as St. Mark’s Church (Crkva Svetog Marka) in Belgrade, a prominent Serbian Orthodox church in Belgrade and the National Assembly of Serbia building with its distinctive green dome, also located in central Belgrade.
Using these key details, our fact-checker was able to identify the coordinates of the location on Google Map, further confirming that the video shows a protest in Serbia and not Burkina Faso.
Further checks show that thousands of people rallied in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou on April 30, 2025 in support of the nation’s military government following an alleged coup attempt.
“Crowds of protesters gathered at the Place de la Revolution in Ouagadougou on Wednesday, chanting “Long live Captain Traore!” with some holding banners showing a photo of Gen. Langley with the word “slave” written on his head with red marker. Others waved Burkina Faso and Russia’s flag, a close ally of the West African country,” the Associated Press (AP) reported.
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To corroborate the media report, Traoré also posted photos on his X handle, @CapitaineIb226, alongside a caption thanking demonstrators for supporting “our commitment and our vision for a new Burkina Faso and a new Africa, free from imperialism and neo-colonialism.”
One of the photos show a crowd of protesters holding the national flags of the West African nation, while some landmarks observed therein were different from the video claim in circulation.
THE VERDICT
The claim that the video shows Burkinabè expressing support for Burkina Faso military leader, Ibrahim Traoré is MISLEADING; the video shows an anti-government protest held in Belgrade, Serbia in March 2025 and not the Burkinabé pro-Traoré rally of April 30, 2025.
Nurudeen Akewushola is a fact-checker with FactCheckHub. He has authored several fact checks which have contributed to the fight against information disorder. You can reach him via nyahaya@icirnigeria.org and @NurudeenAkewus1 via Twitter.
Opeyemi Kehinde is a Professional Fact-Checker, Multimedia Journalist, and Editor of the FactCheckHub.
