Post uses old video to falsely claim it shows ‘African leader’ berating ECOWAS over Niger crisis

“Breaking News!!! You Are not Representing Us’ Africa Leader Blast ECOWAS Over Coup In Niger, Salute Militarily Action (sic),” reads the Facebook post published on July 31, 2023, and shared more than 700 times.

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A screenshot of the false Facebook post, taken on August 1, 2023

The post features a video that includes a clip of a man dressed in a white kaftan and pictures of heads of state belonging to ECOWAS. A woman narrating the video claims that the man in the white kaftan lashed out at ECOWAS over the Niger crisis.

The account that posted the claim has a history of sharing misinformation and has been the subject of past AFP Fact Check debunks (here and here).

Bazoum was ousted on July 26, 2023, making Niger the third country in as many years, along with Mali and Burkina Faso, to experience a military coup.

All three have been grappling with a jihadist insurgency that has put immense pressure on their already fragile governments (archived here).

After an emergency session called by the chairman of ECOWAS, Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu, the regional bloc demanded that Bazoum be reinstated within seven days (archived here) from July 30, 2023.

It said it would explore “all measures” if constitutional authority is not restored before the ultimatum expires on August 6, 2023.

Burkina Faso and Mali, both headed by military leaders, said in a joint statement on July 31, 2023, that they would consider any military action in Niger as a “declaration of war against Burkina Faso and Mali” (archived here).

But the claim that the video shows an African leader criticising a possible military intervention in Niger by ECOWAS is false.

Gambian opposition leader

Using the InVID-WeVerify video verification tool, AFP Fact Check found that the footage of the man in the white kaftan – the “African leader” mentioned in the post – has been online since December 2022.

Gambian news outlet Kerr Fatou posted a longer version of the footage on its YouTube channel on December 25, 2022 (archived here).

The caption explained that the video showed Gambian opposition leader Mama Kandeh making closing remarks at the congress of the opposition party, the Gambian Democratic Congress (GDC), in Jarra Soma.

In his speech, Kandeh criticised ECOWAS leaders for planning to set up an “anti-coup unit”, claiming that the move was self-serving.

The leaders of the regional bloc agreed in December 2022 to set up a regional force that would help restore “constitutional order where they are threatened in the subregion” (archived here).

“This unit is set up to defend them and to protect them only. Nobody else,” Kandeh said in his 2022 speech.

Kandeh’s speech was also reported by other Gambian news outlets at the time (archived here).

Footage from this event was recently republished by Sahara TV on its YouTube channel on July 31, 2023.

The caption used by Sahara TV was very similar to the text in the false post, but does not mention Niger: “ECOWAS Leaders Not Representing Us’ Kandeh Takes Swipe Over Coup d'etat In West Africa”. Sahara TV also indicated that the footage was an “archive video”.