Fact Check: Did Bandits Massacre Over 150 Kidnapped Victims in Sokoto?
A recently circulating video depicting mass massacre by gunmen amidst gunshots and dead bodies in deep trenches has been circulating on WhatsApp claiming that they were bandits killiing over 150 abducted victims in Sokoto State.
The claim which has been “forwarded many times,” states, “Bandits kill those 150 community people kidnapped in SOKOTO STATE, as the govt refused to pay 200 Billion ransom with 250 Bikes.”
Meanwhile, Daily Trust recently reported bandits abducted over 150 persons and rustled over 1,000 cattle in some villages in Gobir Emirate of Sokoto State. The incident happened few days after the death in kidnappers’ den, of the Emir of Gobir, Alhaji Isa Muhammad Bawa, who was also the District Head of Gatawa.
Outraged at the activities of terrorists and bandits ravaging Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, and Kebbi states, the Minister of State for Defence, Dr Bello Muhammed Matawalle directed the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), General Christopher Musa, and other military chiefs to move to Sokoto with him as part of an intensified effort by the federal government to rid the North-west of the menace of banditry, kidnapping and other forms of terrorism.
Before Matawalle’s directive, some residents of the affected states had taken their destiny into their own hands by mobilising against bandits and resorting to self-help.
While the residents of Matusgi in Talata Mafara, Zamfara State had overpowered and killed about 37 bandits, thousands of residents of Gobir in Sokoto State had also stormed the forest in large numbers to rescue the 150 kidnapped compatriots and also recover the remains of the district head of Gobir, Isa Mohammad Bawa, who was abducted and killed by bandits.
PRNigeria took a screenshot of strategic aspects of the video footage being circulated on WhatsApp with the aforementioned claim and meticulously conducted a reverse image search of each keyframe taken.
One of the image revealed various results of different sources sharing the image, mostly with Arabic texts.
For instance, a tweet on Moscow News dated 31st August 2024 was spotted by the fact check team. This tweet as posted on the X handle with a full Arabic text. PRNigeria fact check then leveraged on Google translate to translate the text from Arabic to English which reads, “The largest mass massacre in the modern century was committed, and hundreds of civilians were liquidated in the most heinous form of genocide, and unbelievable scenes of the scale of the catastrophe in Sudan, and the shouts of God is Great during the commission of this massacre.#Sudan”
PRNigeria fact check then inspected the hashtag #Sudan which was part of the text but not much result came up.
However, further investigation of the search image result showed that the footage also appeares two days ago on Sudan Trends’s X handle in what seem to be a now taken down taken down tweet which states, “Allegations and news of genocide and ethnic cleansing crimes in broad daylight committed and documented by the janjaweed militias (Rapid Support Forces) supported by the UAE in the city of El-Daein, Darfur…”
Search results also showed the same footage being shared on a web blog Sudan Voices in Arabic August 30, 2024. The headline when translated to English reads, “The truth about the shocking video, and the liquidation of (700) detainees.”
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Further, the translation of the body of the text published by Susan voices reads, “Bloggers on social media circulated a shocking video clip that highlights the brutality of atrocities that have nothing to do with humanity.
“The video revealed acts of genocide against (700) people in ways that violate the legal and moral standards and rules of the human race.”
However, a deeper dive by PRNigeria fact check revealed that Sudanese based fact checking platform Juhainah refuted the claim that the footage emerged from Susan.
Juhainah who writes in Arabic said, “Some social media accounts circulated a horrific video clip that was said to show a massacre committed by the Rapid Support Forces militia in the city of Al Daein. Those who circulated the clip said that the militia liquidated innocent, defenseless citizens detained by it in the city of Al Daein, East Darfur, on charges of spying and providing the army’s warplanes with the coordinates of the locations of the Rapid Support Forces.
The Jehaina team searched and verified the source of the clip and found that it was from Burkina Faso, and has nothing to do with the war in Sudan.
Following this lead, PRNigeria investigated further and the clip first emerged on wednesday, August 28, on the Clash Report news platform on X, as well as on its Telegram account.
Findings revealed that the mass massacre happened in Burkina Faso by a jihadist group known as JNIM, which is linked to Al Qaeda. The news indicates that this group killed more than 400 civilians who were digging trenches, and the civilian victims had no choice but to lie on top of each other to protect themselves. Some women who were collecting firewood were also reportedly shot by members of the group.
This was corroborated in a report by Reuters with the headline, “Burkina Faso massacre survivor describes bloodshed in trenches.
A woman who survived the massacre of hundreds of villagers in central Burkina Faso described the horror of searching through bodies to find her brothers, in an interview following the attack claimed by an Al Qaeda-linked group earlier this week.
“We went out with carts to collect the bodies of my older brothers,” said the woman, 38, who escaped with her toddler.
“We spent a long time going through bodies piled up under trees,” she said.
Hundreds were killed in north-central Burkina Faso after suspected jihadists opened fire on them as they were digging trenches around a town to protect it from attacks, victims’ relatives and a source who spoke to wounded survivors said.
The attack outside the town of Barsalogho is one of the deadliest since groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State moved into Burkina Faso from neighbouring Mali almost a decade ago, plunging the Sahel nation into a security crisis that contributed to two coups in 2022.
The ruling junta has condemned the violence, but did not say how many people were killed.
Conclusion:
Findings by PRNigeria revealed that while the footage has also been shared with various other claims especially in relation to Sudan, the origin of the footage is in Burkina Faso where jihadist group known as JNIM, which is linked to Al Qaeda, massacred a large number of civilians who were digging trenches to protect themselves.
PRNigeria therefore concludes that the claim that bandits massacred the over 150 kidnapped victims of Sokoto in that video, is False.
By PRNigeria
