Video shows Senegalese soldiers during a parade, not Niger's army

This article is more than one year old.
Published on August 11, 2023 at 12:17
3 min read
By James OKONG'O, AFP Kenya

As West African leaders made plans for a possible military intervention in Niger if coup leaders failed to free ousted president Mohamed Bazoum and revert power to the country’s democratically elected government, a video emerged online alongside a claim that it shows Nigerien soldiers preparing for combat. But this is false: the footage shows a Senegalese military parade during the country’s Independence Day celebrations on April 4, 2023.

“These Nigerien soldiers are not joking at all #war #breakfast #time #africa (sic),” reads a post on Instagram from August 2, 2023.

Screenshot showing the false post, taken on August 10, 2023

The footage shows heavily armed soldiers wielding guns and knives while chanting what sounds like a war song. They are flanked by a group of seemingly fascinated civilian onlookers, some of whom are recording the event using their phones.

Similar claims also circulated on Facebook and TikTok.

On July 26, 2023, 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.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) gave the troops who seized power in Niger a seven-day ultimatum to reinstate Bazoum or face the potential use of force, but coup leaders defied the warning. The deadline passed on August 6, 2023 with no action taken.

Meanwhile, leaders of ECOWAS met on August 10 and ordered the activation of a “standby force” for possible use against the Niger’s coup generals (archived here). The bloc did not provide more details on the force to be deployed or the timeline for actions against the coup leaders.

But the clip circulating online does not show troops from Niger.

Senegalese soldiers

The tricolour flag of Senegal with its vertical green, yellow and red stripes centred by a star is visible throughout the footage. Niger’s flag is orange, white and green, with an orange dot in the centre.

The Senegalese flag in the clip (left) and the Niger flag (right)

A small text box with the French words “L'oeil du lion” – in English “Eye of the lion” – features prominently in the clip, which originated on TikTok and was posted by an account with the same name (archived here).

@loeildulion_ « Ndam mba déé ». Démonstration inedite des forces comandos de l’armée sénégalaise. #loeildulion #senegal #4avril #independance #fyp #commando #armeesenegalaise #foryou #tiktok #senegalesetiktok ♬ son original - L’œil du lion

Translated from French, the TikTok caption reads: “Senegal military parade…#April 4”.

AFP Fact Check then used the video verification tool InVID-WeVerify to conduct reverse image searches on keyframes from the footage and traced a longer version of the clip back to a YouTube post (archived here) about Senegal’s Independence Day celebrations held on April 4, 2023.

The footage was streamed on the Senegalese TV station Live SN.

Senegal gained independence from France on April 4, 1960.

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).

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