Video shows attack on Niger’s ruling party headquarters, not the French embassy

“Things are getting out of hand in #Niger republic. The Embassy of #FRANCE in #NIGER REPUBLIC attacked by Niger people (sic),” reads a message published on August 3, 2023 on X, formerly Twitter.

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Screenshot showing the false video, taken on August 8, 2023

The 45-second video shows thick black smoke billowing from a burning building and paper strewn on the ground. People can be seen milling in front of the building as it burns.

The same claim was shared on Facebook and TikTok. Another TikTok post here claimed the embassy on fire was Nigeria's.

Almost two weeks ago, the Presidential Guard in Niger staged a coup and ousted Bazoum, the country’s democratically elected president. In the days that followed, thousands of coup supporters took to the streets to demonstrate, at times violently (archived here).

Bazoum is being detained by the military whose leaders have declared that they now hold power in the unstable West African nation.

While it is true that protesters attacked the French embassy in Niamey on July 30, 2023, the video does not show this incident.

Party office fire

AFP Fact Check debunked the same claim in French (archived here).

The burning building shared in footage on social media does not resemble the French embassy in Niger, recently filmed by AFP during a violent demonstration on July 30, 2023 (archived here).

The colours and structures of the two buildings are different.

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A side-by-side comparison of the burning building on social media, left, and the French embassy in Niger

According to a French diplomatic source, there was an attempt by demonstrators to break into the embassy but their efforts were thwarted by security guards who used tear gas to disperse them.

We ran reverse image searches on the footage using the InVid WeVerify video tool and found similar clips showing a fire at the headquarters of Bazoum's party – the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism (PNDS) – in Niamey that was attacked by pro-coup rioters on July 27, 2023.

Footage of the headquarters on fire was published by news sites here and here (archived here and here).

An AFP journalist was on the scene that day and took pictures of the events.

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AFP photo showing the fire at the PNDS offices

A signpost reading “bienvenue” – French for “welcome” – can be seen 33 seconds into the video circulating in false posts on social media. We matched signs and pillars from the footage to a photo of the same party premises uploaded to Getty Images in 2020 (archived here).

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A side-by-side comparison of the building in flames, left, and a 2020 image of the same building from the Getty Images photo archives

The military takeover in Niger is the third in a series of coups that have destabilised Africa’s Sahel region in the past three years (archived here).