Post falsely claims images show Nigerian children hospitalised after eating local dish

“BREAKING NEWS!!! 3 children hospitalised, after Eating Yariba Ewedu and Amala. Investigation Ongoing (sic),” reads the caption of an X post published on August 2, 2025.

“Yariba” is an ethnic slur against Yorubas. “Ewedu” is a green soup made from jute leaves, while “amala” is a soft, stretchy Nigerian dough made from yam flour. A popular dish in Nigeria combines amala and ewedu with stew. 

Image

Screenshot showing the false post, taken on August 5, 2025

Attached to the post are two images showing three children who appear to be unhappy with the food in front of them.

Shared more than 500 times, the claim was published by an account called “Mike Ejeagha”. AFP Fact Check’s review of the account shows it regularly shares ethnic slurs targeting ethnicities in Nigeria, especially the Yoruba people. 

Ethnic slander and tribalistic rhetoric have become increasingly common on X among Nigerian users of Igbo and Yoruba descent, especially in the aftermath of the 2023 presidential election (archived here). 

The contest saw Labour Party’s Peter Obi, an Igbo from the southeast, face off against Bola Tinubu, a Yoruba from the southwest — a dynamic that fed ethnic tensions online. 

Supporters of both candidates often published divisive posts, many laced with slurs and stereotypes targeting each other’s communities.

However, the pictures in the claim do not show children who were hospitalised after eating the local dish.

Fabricated claim

AFP Fact Check found no recent news reports of food poisoning involving three children in Nigeria.

We used Google Lens to conduct reverse image searches on the pictures in the X post. The earliest result led to a YouTube Short uploaded on August 1, 2025 (archived here).

In the full three-minute video, published by a YouTube account belonging to a user named Adejoke Adekoya, three children are seen being served a local delicacy by someone they refer to as “Mom”. 

In the video, we hear a woman interacting with the three children while dishing out okro soup with amala into bowls. 

A review of the YouTube account shows the woman in the video shares scenes from her family’s life.

In an Instagram chat message, Adekoya told AFP Fact Check that the claim is false. 

“Kindly disregard the post shared by the individual. He purposely used the post to promote his disgusting tribalistic agenda because nothing of the sort happened,” she said. “My kids ate the food, and they were all ok with it after tasting it. And I’ve already reached out to him to take it down.”