Nigerian separatists share misleading clip to further stoke tensions in southern region

Published on March 21, 2024 at 11:26
4 min read
By Erin FLANAGAN, AFP Africa

Sixteen Nigerian soldiers were killed on a mission to halt hostilities between two communities in the southern Delta state, where clashes over land ownership have left several people dead in recent weeks. Residents in the oil-rich region accused troops of burning a village in retaliation for the soldiers’ deaths. Social media users shared a video claiming the clip shows a reprisal attack carried out by military forces on a community in Delta state. But the claim is false: the footage shows a January blaze in neighbouring Rivers state.

“Nigerian soldiers still on revenge mission: another community set ablaze by Nigeria army in Delta state,” reads a post published on X on February 18, 2024.

The post includes a 54-second video of people filming boats on fire as large plumes of black smoke billow out over the water.

A screenshot of the false post, taken on March 19, 2024

On March 18, 2024, Nigeria's army denied accusations that forces carried out revenge attacks after the killing of 16 soldiers in the southern Delta state. AFP covered the story (archived here).

Liked more than 1,200 times, the X post was shared by an account that regularly features content supporting the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a separatist group pushing for independence in Nigeria’s southeast region.

The movement’s supporters shared the footage alongside claims that Nigeria’s military unfairly targets southerners in the mainly Christian south while protecting Nigerians living in the mostly Muslim north.

However, this video does not show footage from the alleged reprisal attacks in Delta state, but rather from an unrelated blaze in neighbouring Rivers state.

Fire in Port Harcourt

Using a reverse image search, AFP Fact Check found the same clip posted on TikTok in late January -- nearly two months before the military mission in Delta state (archived here).

A screenshot of the TikTok video, taken on March 19, 2024

AFP Fact Check used several visual clues to verify this footage showed the same incident.

The same burning boat is visible in both videos, as is a tree to the left of the flames.

A comparison of video from the false post (left) and TikTok (right)

A life ring and a person wearing a patterned outfit are also seen in both the false X post and the original TikTok footage.

“Another fire outbreak at nembe waterside near creek road in portharcourt (sic),” reads the TikTok caption.

Nembe Waterside is the name of a jetty in Port Harcourt, the capital of neighbouring Rivers state (archived here).

Using a keyword search for “fire port harcourt nembe waterside,” AFP Fact Check found several local news reports about the blaze, including one published the same day as the TikTok video (archived here and here).

Nigerian media outlet AIT Live posted a clip of the inferno on its official YouTube channel on January 31, 2024. The video shows the same two boats also visible in the TikTok footage.

A comparison of the false X post and the AIT news report

The reports described a "fire outbreak", with no mention of any military involvement.

Meanwhile, accusations of abuse by the Nigerian military are not limited to the southern region of the country, as claimed in the X post.

According to a 2020 report from Amnesty International, the military razed villages in northern Borno state in response to attacks by the armed group Boko Haram (archived here).

And in 2022, the military was accused of intentionally killing children including babies fathered by insurgents in northern Nigeria (archived here).

Military denial

Defence spokesman Major General Edward Buba dismissed the accusations of reprisals in Delta state as "fake news" (archived here).

"The military debunks all claims that the military embarked on reprisal attacks in Okuama Community after the incident. The community was deserted even before troops arrived at the scene," Buba said.

But a resident from the neighbouring town Bomadi told AFP on March 18 that soldiers were still in Okuama.

"As I'm talking to you right now, soldiers are there and they continue the demolition of buildings in the community," the resident said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu came to power last year, vowing to address insecurity in Africa's most populous nation. But critics say the violence is out of control (archived here).

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