The post has been shared more than 400 times and includes a nearly three-minute video showing gunmen slaughtering people in a trench.
Shehu claimed the killings took place in Nigeria’s northwestern Sokoto state and criticised President Bola Tinubu “and all his security chiefs” for their silence, saying “the incident in the north happened among the northerners, their sworn enemies”.
Shehu claimed that 150 people had been shot dead, adding that all the victims belonged to the same community as the Emir of Gobir, Isah Bawa.
Bawa, a traditional ruler, was abducted after returning to Gawata in Sokoto from an event. Local media reported his death on August 21, 2024three weeks after he was kidnapped (archived hereWhile he was in captivity, a video was posted on X showing a bloodied Bawa begging the government to pay a ransom for his release.
People commenting on Shehu’s post seemed to believe his claim. One said: “This is sad.” Another wrote: “This is madness, insensitive and barbaric.”
AFP Fact Check earlier debunked a message from Shehu after he repeated the false claim that Nigeria’s signing of the Samoa Pact would automatically legalize homosexual relations in the West African country.
His claim that the video of the massacre is linked to Sokoto State and Bawa’s killing is also false.
Massacre in Burkina Faso
Using the InVID-WeVerify Toolwe extracted keyframes from the clip and executed them reverse image search.
The results led to an August 28, 2024, X-message video by a news blog called “Clash Report” (archived here).
Although the clip is much shorter than the version Shehu shared, it shows the same events. It shows armed assailants chanting Allahu Akbar – “God is great” – and gunning down dozens of people who appear to be civilians digging a trench.
There are several matching clues between the two videos, including a few trees not far from the trench. The sound of gunfire also continues unabated.
“Massive massacre in Burkina Faso by JNIM (terrorist group linked to al-Qaeda),” reads the caption of the X-post. “The group killed over 400 villagers who were digging trenches. The only thing the civilians could do was lie on top of each other. They also shot women who were collecting firewood nearby.”
To narrow down the location, AFP Fact Check searched for Facebook posts reporting 400 deaths in Burkina Faso. the Meta content library.
The result was seven posts from different pages, five of which were on August 31st and two published on August 262024 — all named after the location of the massacre: the small town of Barsalogho in Burkina Faso (archived here And here).
Using Google Earth, AFP Fact Check has obtained satellite images of BarsaloghoZooming in reveals a faint impression on the ground that resembles a semicircle running clockwise from the southwest of the city to the northeast (archived here).
Online searches led us to articles about the massacre in Burkina Faso from several news organizations, including a report by independent investigative platform Bellingcat, which found that the footprint in the ground shows defensive trenches dug by villagers in 2022 and 2023. research explains that the townspeople were expanding this fortress last month when the militants arrived and shot them (archived here).
Bellingcat determined that the footage in Shehu’s post was filmed on the “eastern side of Barsalogho” on the coordinates 13.424360984746672, -1.022058233986216.
Reuters, which also published a researchin the massacre, the same location identified.
Meanwhile, Nigerian defense spokesman Edward Buba told a local newspaper Punch the video was “propagated from the terrorist camp” and did not take place in the country itself (archived here).
“It should be noted that the incident never happened in Nigeria. Unfortunately, it happened in a nearby African country that is dealing with terrorism.”
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso is facing increasing violence from the Al Qaeda-affiliated groups Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) and other militant groups, who attack civilians and security forces.
The multi-front conflict displaced thousands of people and destabilized large parts of the country.
Bellingcat reported that on the morning of August 24, 2024, residents of Barsalogho, under duress from the Burkinabe army, were digging defensive trenches before the JNIM shot them all dead.
While the UN said “About 200” people were killed, according to the Collectif Justice Pour Barsalogho (CJB), a collective formed by residents after the attack, said the death toll was “nearly 400” (archived here And here).
However, JNIM claimed Only soldiers and militiamen digging trenches were attacked, and nearly 300 were killed. All victims were described as combatants, not civilians.
