Clip of 2018 pro-Israel rally in Nigeria falsely linked to Mideast war
- Published on March 27, 2026 at 16:19
- 3 min read
- By Oluseyi AWOJULUGBE, AFP Nigeria
With Nigerians staging marches over the Middle East war -- some backing Iran and others the United States and Israel -- a video widely shared on social media claims that a rally was held in the African country’s southeast region to show support for the latter. However, the claim is false; the clip was filmed in 2018 at a rally organised by supporters of the secessionist Biafra campaign who were calling on Israel to support their cause.
“Nigerian Jews have come out in massive support of Israel and the USA. We need to come together as one and separate ourselves from these winterfell people,” reads the caption of a post shared more than 800 times on X.
Published on March 13, 2026, the post includes a video of a large crowd marching and chanting in Igbo, while holding American and Israeli flags.
The chant translates to: “What we are doing is spiritual. The one we serve is a great spirit.”
The clip was also published on Facebook on March 5, 2026, in a post shared more than 3,000 times by an account called “Igbere TV” to its more than 750,000 followers.
“Biafra freedom activists held a peaceful protest and called on US and Israel for help,” reads the caption.
War broke out in the Middle East on February 28, 2026, after joint US-Israeli airstrikes killed Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader since 1989, alongside some of his family members and top Iranian officials (archived here).
Iran has since blockaded the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil shipping route, triggering global economic repercussions (archived here).
In Nigeria, petrol prices jumped sharply from 830 naira ($0.59) a litre to 1,250 naira ($0.90) (archived here).
Reactions to the war in Nigeria have been mixed: Shia Muslims held a march in Abuja, the capital city, to show solidarity for Iran and Palestinians, while a group of predominantly Christians sided with the US and Israel (archived here and here).
However, the video of the march shared on X is old and unrelated to the Middle East conflict.
Biafra and Israel
A reverse image search of keyframes from the video showed that the footage has been posted online on different dates, including in 2019 and 2020 (archived here and here).
In both instances, the posts’ captions referred to the campaign for the secession of Biafra from Nigeria.
“Agitating For Freedom Of Biafra Is A Task For Every Biafran (sic),” reads the 2019 post.
The subsequent 2020 post reads: “As The Northern Muslims protesting in the Northern Nigeria against America and Israel burning flags,,Biafran Christians are in the East With American and Israelis Relatives flags,The World have relatives everywhere,Freedom is must (sic).”
A comparison shows the footage in both clips matches the video falsely linked to the Middle East war.
Biafra is the proposed republic that independence supporters want in southeastern Nigeria. It traces back to 1967 when Chukwuemeka Ojukwu declared the region’s independence, sparking a brutal 30-month civil war (archived here and here).
Nnamdi Kanu, who founded the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) movement to resuscitate the campaign, was sentenced to life imprisonment in November 2025 on terrorism-related charges (archived here).
Further searches led to a 2018 blog post featuring images of the same scenes. The rally was reportedly held in Nigeria's Abia state by IPOB adherents who were demanding information on Kanu’s whereabouts and calling for the release of detained members (archived here).
An archived blog, The Biafra Telegraph, also contains pictures from the 2018 rally.
Nigerian Igbos share ties with Israel. Diplomatic documents which became declassified in 2023 revealed that Israel assisted Biafra through third parties during the civil war (archived here).
Kanu himself resurfaced in Israel to continue the campaign for Biafra’s secession after escaping a military raid on his home in 2018 (archived here).
AFP Fact Check has debunked other claims related to Biafra, including one that US President Donald Trump threatened Nigeria over Kanu’s detention.
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