A VIRAL video circulating across social media platforms shows armed men inside a medical facility playing with hospital equipment, with captions asserting that they are terrorists operating in an abandoned community in Northern Nigeria.
The footage has been shared widely across blogs, online forums including Nairaland, and TSWANGI TV and here.
The video includes an overlay text in Hausa reading “mahaukata nan fa asibitine” which means “These mad people, this is a hospital”, accompanied by claims that armed bandits were captured on camera in an abandoned health facility in the northern region.
As of 14 October 2026, the post has generated over 300 likes, 227 comments and more than 160 shares.
READ: 2023 video falsely shared as recent bandit attack in Niger State
CLAIM
Viral video shows armed terrorists playing with medical equipment in an abandoned hospital in Northern Nigeria.
FINDINGS
Findings by The FactCheckHub show that the claim linking the video to terrorists operating in Northern Nigeria is UNPROVEN.
Keyframes extracted from the video were subjected to facial recognition searches on PimEyes. Due to low image resolution, heavy motion blur, and partial face coverings worn by individuals in the footage, their identities couldn’t be confirmed.
Audio examination conducted with native speakers from Northern Nigeria revealed that the primary language spoken in the clip is neither Hausa nor Fulfulde, the two predominant languages spoken in the region.
Speaking with The FactCheckHub, language translator Habib Galadima identified the primary dialect spoken in the clip as Maasina Fulfulde (also known as Malian Fulfulde). According to language repository Omniglot, Maasina Fulfulde belongs to the West Central Fula group of Senegambian languages. It is spoken by about 4.6 million people mainly in Mali, where it is an official language, and also Ivory Coast and Ghana.
While basic Arabic phrases such as “Bismillah” (In the name of God), “Allahu Akbar” (God is great), and “MashaAllah” (As God has willed) can be heard repeatedly in the background, these are common Islamic expressions and cannot be definitively tied to Northern Nigeria or any specific militant group.
Additionally, although the attire and turbans worn by the men in the video align with the general dressing style commonly associated with bandits operating in Northern Nigeria, The FactCheckHub could not singlehandedly verify that these individuals are bandits currently invading hospitals in Northern Nigeria. The footage lacks distinctive geographic markers, meaning the video could have been filmed anywhere within Nigeria or in neighboring countries, such as Niger and Chad.
Geolocation analysis of the physical environment, showing a room with green window shutters and an ultrasound scanner, yielded no distinct structural markers or regional landmarks to confirm the location as Northern Nigeria.
Although reports published on online forums like Nairaland asserted that the men are bandits in a hospital in northern Nigeria, the report simply recirculates the viral footage without providing primary verification, or independent location coordinates. While healthcare facilities in parts of Northern Nigeria have faced security challenges, no verifiable evidence links this specific video clip to the region.
VERDICT
The claim that a viral video shows armed terrorists playing with hospital equipment in Northern Nigeria is UNPROVEN. Findings show that there is no distinct geolocation, linguistic evidence, or official verification connecting the clip to Northern Nigeria.
Seasoned writer and literary curator, Zainab Abdulrasaq is a factchecker for The FactCheckHub in an effort to combat information disorder. She can be reached on IG @blackbookishgirl or zabdulrasaq@icirnigeria.org
