Video does not show newly elected Senegalese president Bassirou Faye criticizing France

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Summary

A video purportedly showing Bassirou Diomaye Faye criticizing the French government has surfaced online following his election as Senegalese president.

VERDICT: The claim that the video shows Bassirou Diomaye Faye, Senegal’s President-elect, criticizing France is MISLEADING; the footage is actually that of Sonko, an opposition leader in the country. More over, the viral video in circulation was doctored from the footage of his (Sonko) press conference held in 2021.

A video purportedly showing Bassirou Diomaye Faye criticizing the French government has surfaced online following his election as the Senegalese president.

Senegal’s main opposition candidate, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, won last Sunday’s presidential election in the West African country, Aljazeera reported.

The video has been shared on various social media platforms including X, Facebook and WhatsApp. It was also posted by Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the Lagos State gubernatorial candidate of the Labour Party in Nigeria’s 2023 general election.

“With joy in my heart, I congratulate the people of Senegal. Listening to him speak, I understand why the powers that be do all to suppress a courageous generation from rising up, I take solace in the fact that it is INEVITABLE,” Gbadebo posted.

READ: Video does not show Nigerien president released after agreeing to resign

The post has generated over 200 reposts and more than 700 likes as of March 27, 2024.

Similarly, an X user, @Africanhub_ posted the video with another caption thus: 

“It is over for France in Senegal. Mr. Bassirou Diomaye Faye (The new president of Senegal). Your comments on this.”

The post has generated over 100,000 views with over 1,000 reposts and more than 2,500 likes as of March 28, 2024. 

Another X user, @Akparawasunny posted the video with another caption that read: 

“Bassirou Diomaye Faye, Senegal’s new president? At 44 taking a bold step against the colonial slavery of France, America & Britain.”

The video has generated over 200 reposts and more than 300 likes as of March 27, 2024. 

The video also surfaced here and here on Facebook. 

 

CLAIM 

Video shows Bassirou Diomaye Faye criticizing France.

 

THE FINDINGS 

Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is MISLEADING.

Video purportedly showing Bassirou Faye criticizing France/ The claim is misleading,
Video purportedly showing Bassirou Faye criticizing France/ The claim is misleading,

Due to several centuries of shared history, Senegal and France have had a strong connection since the 1600s when the former was colonised until its independence in August 1960. Since then, the West African nation has maintained close links with France through business, national security and military agreements. Up till today, Senegal continues to use French as its official language, including for administration and education.

The FactCheckHub subjected the keyframes in the video to a Google Reverse image search and the result shows that the footage was extracted from the speech delivered by Senegal’s top opposition leader, Ousmane Sonko, at a press conference in July 2021, in Dakar, Senegal. The transcript of the speech was shared by him on his X handle on July 2, 2021. 

Sonko is the leader and founder of the Patriots of Senegal (PASTEF), the political party used by Faye to contest this year’s presidential election in the country. 

The duo were jailed in the build-up to the presidential election but were released a week before the election. But Sonko was barred from contesting the election by the country’s Supreme Court. 

An earlier version of the video was posted on YouTube by Senegal7, a local media organization in the country on July 2, 2021. 

In the original video, Sonko spoke in French at the event and not in English, as seen in the viral video. However, the video has been edited to make it appear like he spoke in English. 

During the press conference, he spoke against the proposed decision of the Senegalese government to adopt an anti-terrorism policy and criticized France for what he described as the inability of the European country to allow the country to thrive.

 

THE VERDICT

The claim that the video shows Bassirou Diomaye Faye, Senegal’s President-elect, criticizing France is MISLEADING; the footage is actually that of Sonko, an opposition leader in the country. More over, the viral video in circulation was doctored from the footage of his (Sonko) press conference held in 2021.

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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 [email protected] and @NurudeenAkewus1 via Twitter.

Multiple X and Facebook users.

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