Video shows power outage in Paris caused by ‘technical glitch’ in 2022, not 2023

"Blackout in France," reads the caption on a Facebook reel published in Nigeria on August 15, 2023.

A line of text added to the video, which has since been shared more than 9,900 times, reads: "And it has started 'blackout' in Paris UK next (sic)?”

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Screenshot showing the misleading post, taken on August 24, 2023

The clip, filmed at night, shows a street full of people engulfed in total darkness while an adjacent street is partially lit.

Some people who commented appeared to believe the video was recent and linked it to Niger’s purported uranium ban on France.

“The uranium has finished (sic),” one user wrote. Another asked: “Lack of uranium? (sic)”

Niger is the seventh-largest (archived here) uranium producer in the world, supplying and exporting the heavy metal to several countries in the European Union, including France.

The July 26, 2023 coup in Niger has sparked concerns about French and EU uranium dependency (archived here). Niger provided 19 percent of France’s uranium needs from 2005 to 2020. France runs 56 nuclear reactors (archived here).

The video, however, does not show a recent blackout in Paris caused by dwindling supplies of Nigerien uranium.

Old footage

The video has been shared out of context.

Using a keyword search with the phrase "blackout in Paris", we found several articles here and here about a power outage that occurred in southern parts of Paris on December 9, 2022 (archived here and here).

Several clips showing streets plunged into darkness were shared online in France at the time.

The same footage circulating in Nigeria was embedded in a French-language article that covered the incident (archived here).

The embedded post, written in French and published on X (formerly Twitter), translates to “my street has experienced a power outage for 10 minutes (Paris 4th arrondissement)”.

The mayor of central Paris, Ariel Weil, confirmed (archived here) on December 9, 2022, that "the 4th and 5th arrondissements" experienced a power outage. He further said that power had been restored in several places by the time the information he was sharing was being made public.

French power company RTE said on social media that the blackout was caused by a "technical glitch".

AFP Fact Check searched for streets within the 4th arrondissement on Google Street View and located the same one seen in the clip (archived here).

A closer look at the video showed that the street lamps, wall curves and windows along 5 Rue des Mauvais Garçonsin in Paris are similar to those featured in the Facebook reel.

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A side-by-side comparison of the Facebook Reel clip, left, and the Google Street View image

The video was filmed along the same street where the Hotel du Loiret is situated.

Niger uranium propaganda

Mining of uranium for export markets, including France, continues in Niger, according to French company Orano.

"Activities and operations are continuing at the Arlit and Akokan sites and at the headquarters in Niamey," the company told AFP Fact Check in August 2023, adding that a partnership agreement signed with Niger on May 4, 2023, was still in place (archived here).

AFP Fact Check debunked the claim that Niger had suspended uranium exports to France (archived here).