AN X user, Serah Ibrahim (@TheSerahIbrahim), has posted a video showing a huge crowd of mostly women with a claim that the footage shows residents of Zamfara state fleeing their homes due to incessant abduction by bandits.
Video of mining site collapse NOT from Zamfara but Niger Republic
She posted the video with a sensational caption thus:
“BREAKING:
“Not 1. Not 2. Not 50. But 500. 500 people have been kidnapped in Zurmi LGA, Zamfara State. And not a single word from the Governor or the Presidency. Families around that region can be seen migrating to unknown destinations, in an attempt to run away from the attackers(sic).”
The post has garnered more than half a million views with over 5,000 reposts, more than 5,000 likes and over 1,000 comments as of May 19, 2024.
CLAIM
Video shows residents fleeing their homes in Zamfara state recently.
THE FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim is MISLEADING.
Zamfara, a North-West Nigerian state is facing persistent attacks by terrorists and bandits. The development has led to the death, abduction and displacement of thousands of residents in recent years.
When The FactCheckHub subjected the keyframes of the video to multiple Reverse Image Searches, the results show that the video has been online since June 2021.
Checks revealed that a longer version of the video was published on the Facebook page of SAIDA International e.V, a German-based international organization on the 8th of June, 2021 with a caption in German language indicating that the video emanated from Burkina Faso.
“Fleeing their own country: As if the people of #BurkinaFaso, one of the poorest countries in the world didn’t have enough to worry about, they now have to leave their possessions and goods behind and flee murderous gangs,” a Google translation of the Facebook post read.
The 92-second longer video was also posted the same day on the YouTube channel of Lobs Paalga TV, a Burkina Faso-based Television station with the title: “Vidéo d’un exode attribué aux habitants de Solhan.”
Using Google Translation, it reads: “video of an exodus attributed to the inhabitants of Solhan.”
Further findings show that the incident was also reported by Al-Jazeera on the same date.
The media reported that over 7,000 families fled their homes in Solhan village in Burkina Faso’s northern region following the massacre that claimed the lives of several people.
THE VERDICT
The claim that the video shows residents fleeing their homes in Zamfara state recently is MISLEADING; the video emanated from the crisis that occurred in Solhan village in Yagha province, Burkina Faso in June 2021.
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.
