Images show bikes transporting bodies in Nigeria in 2022, not after recent Christmas bloodshed

Published on January 26, 2024 at 12:31
7 min read
By Mary KULUNDU, AFP Kenya

Attacks by armed gangs on villages in north-central Nigeria in December 2023 have triggered the spread of false images claiming to show the aftermath of the massacres, including pictures of victims being transported on motorbikes after they were purportedly killed during the violence. But the claim is false; the images show villagers from a different state who were slaughtered during an attack in 2022.

On January 3, 2024, this X account published a post containing two images of motorbike riders with tightly wrapped-up bodies strapped to their pillions.

“Below is how victims of Fulani terrorist attacked (sic) are being carried to mortuaries. Indigenes are discovering dead bodies of their loved ones on a daily basis,” reads part of the caption.

The post adds, “The killing middle belt #Christians by #Fulani terrorist in plateau state has gone to another level and sincerely speaking it’s beyond imagination (sic)”.

A screenshot of the false post, taken on January 24, 2024

The post has been viewed more than 170,000 times and reposted 2,600 times since it was published.

The same claim was repeated on a Facebook group linked to the Nigerian separatist movement Indigenous People of Biafra (see here) as well as on Twitter (here and here).

The posts also tag international media organisations and the United Nations to increase traction.

A screenshot of the false post shared on an IPOB Facebook group, taken on January 24, 2024

Plateau killings

At least 198 people were killed when armed gangs attacked several villages in Plateau state in north-central Nigeria between December 23 and December 26, 2023 (archived here).

The state, which lies between the Muslim-majority north and mainly Christian south, has been embroiled in religious and ethnic tensions for years.

The attacks displaced nearly 20,000 people, mostly women and children, in some 20 villages.

But the images purported to show the terrible aftermath of the violence in Plateau state are unrelated.

Different massacre

A reverse image search led to the same pictures on this Facebook post published on October 4, 2022 -- more than a year before the December 2023 attacks in Plateau state.

A screenshot of the Facebook post in Hausa, taken on January 26, 2024

According to the caption, written in Hausa, the photos show the victims of an attack that took place in Nigeria's Taraba state, which is nearly 200 kilometres from where the December 2023 massacres happened.

On October 5, 2022, a Facebook page (archived here) called “Fulani News Media” published a video of a similar procession of bike riders narrated by a man – presumably the one filming – speaking Hausa.

The voice in the video talks about killings that happened in Taraba and mentions that the riders were transporting the bodies of their slain family members to the police station.

A street sign in the footage reveals that it was filmed in Bali, a district in Taraba state.

A screenshot showing a street sign, taken on January 25, 2024

A date-filtered search on Google using the keywords “Taraba state attack, Bali” located news reports here and here about the October 2022 attack (archived here and here).

According to the reports, at least 12 people were killed when gunmen ambushed Dogon-Ruwa village in Bali and opened fire indiscriminately.

Additionally, we located an Instagram post (archived here) describing the same attack and using the same images as in the false posts we are debunking.