Clip showing Nigerian military seizing weapons concealed in a coffin is AI-generated
- Published on July 31, 2026 at 14:15
- 4 min read
- By Oluseyi AWOJULUGBE, AFP Nigeria
In recent weeks, Nigeria’s fight against terrorism has seen the army targeting supplies intended for jihadists who have been trying to establish a caliphate in the country for more than a decade. Posts on social media claim that a video shows soldiers seizing a consignment of weapons concealed in a coffin. However, this is false; the video was digitally generated using photos from a 2012 military exercise.
“A Vehicle heading to Kwara State from Benue State, pretending to be going for a burial was intercepted by soldiers doing stop and search. Just see what they found (sic),” reads the caption of a Facebook post published on June 15, 2026, and shared more than 900 times.
The accompanying clip shows several people kneeling before soldiers as they inspect a coffin containing guns and ammunition.
“My fellow Nigerians, these people you are seeing here, they are moving with HiAce bus as if they are going for a burial with a casket, but do you know what this casket contains?" a male narrator is heard saying. "This casket contains AK-47 rifles with AK-47 bullets. So this is how these people have been conveying all these weapons, all these arms from one state to the other.”
The video has circulated with the same claim since the beginning of 2026, while in some instances, posts with images from the footage claim that the incident happened in South Sudan.
Kwara state, situated in Nigeria’s north-central region, has witnessed mass shootings and abductions as jihadists push south from their stronghold in the northwest (archived here and here).
Meanwhile, Benue state, in the Middle Belt, has faced insecurity driven by communal clashes between farmers and cattle herders competing for land and water (archived here).
However, the video appearing to show soldiers intercepting weapons hidden in a coffin is fake.
2012 training exercise
A reverse image search to ascertain the origin of the video led to a Facebook post published on March 16, 2016, by Nigerian media outlet, Sahara Reporters (archived here).
“FLASH: Photos showing weapons hidden inside a coffin are not real, they're training scenarios in the Army-Nigerian Army spokesperson,” the caption reads.
The post contains six photos with similar features as the clip in question.
A follow-up article by the news outlet published on March 30, 2016, quoted the then acting army spokesman Sani Kukasheka Usman as saying that “the photos taken were from a training exercise held in 2012" (archived here).
However, the video circulating in 2026 is not real.
AI-generated video
Several visual inconsistencies signal that the clip was generated using AI.
Firstly, a man squatting in front of the soldiers and wearing blue trousers, appears to have three legs, while other people in the scene lack distinct facial features -- both common characteristics of AI-generated visuals.
Secondly, a hand seen opening the casket also looks like it has stubbed fingers with no visible fingernails -- another AI anomaly.
Thirdly, at different points in the video, the interior of the casket changes from plain wood to a white-and-purple cloth lining, while the number of weapons and the amount of ammunition inside also change significantly.
Lastly, a gloved hand seen scooping the bullets at the end of the video moves mechanically, lacking real human fluidity. The hand also looks like it belongs to a lighter-skinned person, who does not feature in any of the original pictures.
Given the similarities between the 2012 photos and the fake clip, the synthetic footage was likely generated using the original pictures as a base.
AI detection tools could not conclusively establish whether the video is synthetic, a common limitation when analysing low-quality footage. However, the numerous visual inconsistencies and its close resemblance to the original photos strongly suggest it was digitally generated.
AFP Fact Check has debunked other claims around insecurity in Nigeria here and here.
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