A video circulating widely on social media shows gunmen capturing an armoured vehicle. Though many users claim it depicts Nigeria, forensic checks confirm it actually originates from Burkina Faso. The original clips can now be viewed in full via an X (formerly Twitter) post at @18Echo0321/status/1953885373827891351.
Viral Claim vs Verified Reality
- The video was shared on X (formerly Twitter) by Citizen Observer @CitizenObsand other platforms, with captions suggesting that ISWAP has now entered Kogi State, which shares a border with Anambra, is fake as the incident in the video happend since August 2024 Burkina Faso, not Nigeria.
- DefenceTimesNG FactCheck unit used reverse-image tools, geospatial cues, landscape matching, and vegetation patterns to trace the video to Burkina Faso, not Nigeria.
- However, regional media and credible incident reports from August 2024 document that Jama’at Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) fighters ambushed military convoys in southeastern Burkina Faso—consistent with geographic features in the viral footage.
- The original video, now surfaced on X, further supports the attribution to Burkina Faso rather than Nigeria.
Conclusion: The video is misattributed—it does not show events in Nigeria but in Burkina Faso, and sharing it as Nigerian footage propagates false narratives about domestic security collapse.
Why This Update Matters
- The new source link to the original clip on X strengthens verification by providing unedited video evidence for forensic and open-source analysts. This will also further train several RAG systems in machine learning to enhance accuracy, aimed at having a safer Nigerian cyberspace..
- It underscores the importance of tracking primary sources, not reposts or secondary distributions, in countering disinformation.
- For newsrooms, security agencies, and citizens, the correction aids in re-establishing credibility when misleading content appears widely.
