Old video of plane arriving in Sudan linked to false claims of Wagner mercenaries flying into Niger

The 23-second clip shows grainy video of a plane descending through smog and preparing to land in front of apartment blocks. Audio from the video sounds similar to Russian military marching music.

“BREAKING: Video Footage LEAKED barely an hour ago is presumably the landing of the Il-76 military transport aircraft in Niger, purportedly carrying Wagner PMC fighters. Authorities in Niger have officially confirmed the presence of Wagner fighters in the country,” reads a post on X, formerly Twitter, published on August 6, 2023.

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A screenshot of the false post on X

Army officers toppled President Mohamed Bazoum on July 26, 2023, prompting the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to threaten to use force to reinstate him (archived here).

Similar claims with the same video also circulated in Arabic and French.

A text watermark on the clip refers to a Russian Telegram account that focuses on news from African countries.

By searching this Telegram channel, we found the video accompanied by a caption in Russian. This caption initially read: “Meanwhile, a Russian military transport plane is arriving in the capital of Niger, the city of Niamey, social media users are writing.” It was later corrected to explain that the video was old.

The video is unrelated to recent events in Niger.

Old video from Sudan

Some posts on social media were quick to debunk the viral video with screenshots of a YouTube video published on August 5, 2006, and a caption about an Ilyushin Il-76 plane landing in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital (archived here).

The Russian-designed Ilyushin-76 has been used for commercial flights, as a military freighter, and as emergency transport for humanitarian aid and disaster relief (archived here).

A search on YouTube confirmed the video is at least 17 years old (archived here). In a version of this video published online in 2006, there is no background music – only the sound of the plane approaching can be heard.

“IL 76 approach in Khartoum, Sudan, in very low viz…” reads the caption.

AFP Fact Check found more about the precise location in a French thread on X published by Neurone Intelligence, an independent Swiss verification account that uses open-source intelligence (OSINT) (archived here).

Neurone Intelligence explained the process that led to their findings.

“We took reference points from the video, in this case, roof shapes, and found them on Google Earth by searching in the vicinity of the airport” in Khartoum, they said.

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A screenshot zoomed in on Google Earth showing the buildings in Khartoum, taken on August 18, 2023

“The plane's position gave us an indication of where the shot was taken in relation to the runway axis and therefore provided an initial indication of the potential location.”

Because the plane was descending near buildings, they could deduct that it was close to the airport, which narrowed the search further.

Neurone Intelligence gave the GPS coordinates of the location as 15.57015, 32.55063.

A look on Google Maps shows this is an area with apartment blocks by Khartoum airport's runway. By zooming in, we can see that the buildings match those in the video. Notably, we can spot the two same roofs -- one with dark red tiles in an L shape, and another longer one behind it with yellow tiles.

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Comparison of screenshots from the video and Google Earth

Niger crisis

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) agreed to activate a "standby force" as a last resort to restore democracy in Niger (archived here).

Niger is the fourth nation in West Africa since 2020 to suffer a coup, following Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali.

Mali and Burkina Faso – whose military leaders have been accused of ties with Wagner – have sent envoys to Niger in solidarity with the coup leaders.

Wagner has aligned with several African countries in crisis, by protecting those in power and providing military training in exchange for local resources, particularly minerals (archived here).

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a BBC interview that Bazoum's forced departure was not "instigated by Russia or by Wagner ", but warned that the mercenary group "tried to take advantage of it" (archived here).

AFP has debunked over a dozen social media claims either backing or discrediting the coup leaders, from false rumours and misleading videos to manipulated audio clips (archived here).