Serbian anti-graft protest misrepresented as anti-West demonstration in Burkina Faso

“Africans are protesting, demanding that the USA and France stop interfering in Burkina Faso and leave Africa to determine its own future,” reads the caption of the TikTok post published on May 1, 2025.

It continues: “Thousands of citizens across Burkina Faso and other African nations have taken to the streets, calling on the United States and France to withdraw from African affairs. The demonstrators demand that foreign powers respect Africa's sovereignty and allow the continent to determine its own future without external influence.”

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Screenshot showing the false post, taken May 5, 2025

Shared more than 700 times, the 13-second video shows a large crowd protesting in a built-up area.

The same video was shared elsewhere on Facebook, Instagram (here and here), TikTok (here and here) and X.

On April 30, 2025, thousands of people in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou staged a demonstration in support of Ibrahim Traore, the country’s transitional president and head of the military regime. This came after authorities said they had foiled a coup attempt (archived here and here).

However, the video in the TikTok post does not show the scenes in Ouagadougou.

Serbian protest

Using Google Lens to conduct reverse image searches on keyframes from the video, AFP Fact Check found an X video published on March 15, 2025, captioned “anti-corruption protests in Belgrade” (archived here).

Belgrade is the capital of the Balkan country Serbia.

Using keywords from the caption to conduct an internet search, AFP Fact Check found news reports describing protesters converging in Belgrade on the same date as the X video was published to protest the death of 15 people killed last year when a railway station roof collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad (archived here). 

Protesters believed the deaths were the result of alleged corruption and lax oversight related to construction projects 

AFP reported that the protesters stretched for nearly two kilometres, with people filling the streets in and around the parliament and Belgrade's main pedestrian square. 

We were able to match elements from the TikTok video with the X video, notably the streets and a large church. 

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Graphic showing similarities between the X video (left) and the TikTok clip

Using Google Earth, AFP Fact Check identified St. Mark’s Church (Crkva Svetog Marka) in Tasmajdan Park in Belgrade where the crowds had gathered.