Video shows dead cows in Nigeria market, not 'livestock killed by floods in Bangladesh'

Published on September 30, 2024 at 05:09
2 min read
By Eyamin Sajid, AFP Bangladesh

A video of dozens of dead cows in a market in Nigeria has been shared in social media posts that falsely claimed it showed the aftermath of deadly floods in low-lying Bangladesh in August 2024. Local media reported that gunmen had opened fire at a cattle market in the West African nation's Kaduna state, killing people and livestock.

The short video showing dozens of cows lying motionless on the ground was posted on YouTube on August 23, 2024.

Its Bengali-language title read, "Cows and goats are all gone in Feni". The title also included the hashtags "bangladesh" and "flooding".

Feni was one of the worst-affected districts by flooding that inundated vast areas of the low-lying South Asian country, which is crisscrossed by hundreds of rivers and has seen frequent floods in recent decades (archived link).

At least 40 people were killed, and 300,000 required aid in emergency shelters (archived link).

Screenshot of the false YouTube video, captured on September 27, 2024

Similar videos were shared in Facebook posts here and here that also claimed the cows had been killed by recent floods.

But the footage was not filmed in Bangladesh.

Nigerian cattle market

A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the falsely shared video led to a report about an attack on a cattle market in Kaduna state that was published by the Rural Post website on August 22 (archived link).

The article, titled "Villagers Claim Soldiers Killed Over 100 Cows in Kaduna Market; community in shock", includes screenshots from the falsely shared video.

Screenshot of the Rural Post article

The article said that locals in Sabon Birnin village were accusing soldiers of opening fire during the community's weekly cattle market, killing cows and people.

"A video circulating online shows the deceased animals scattered across the market, with three bodies visible, as villagers look on in distress," read the article.

Further keyword searches found a news report about the same incident in Nigeria's The Punch newspaper on August 22, which said the army has launched an investigation into the alleged killing of three persons and more than 100 cattle by troops in Sabon Birnin village (archived link).

The footage circulating online corresponds to satellite imagery of the Sabon Birnin Daji Cattle Market on Google Maps (archived link).

Below is a screenshot comparison between the falsely shared video (left) and the Google Maps image (right), with a matching building highlighted by AFP:

Screenshot comparison between the falsely shared video (left) and the Google Maps image (right)

AFP has debunked other false claims about the floods in Bangladesh here and here.

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