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Claim: A viral video posted on Facebook by Edwuadotv claimed that the newly elected Pope Leo XIV has responded to Capt. Ibrahim Traore.
Verdict: False! There is no official evidence that Pope Leo XIV has responded to Capt. Ibrahim Traore. The video is a cheap fake from an unrelated video.
Full Text
37-year-old Junta leader of Burkina Faso, Capt. Ibrahim Traore seized power in 2022 after staging a successful coup.
He has become a much-talked-about African leader, trending on social media platforms due to his revolutionary Pan-African ideas.
A viral Facebook video by Edwuadotv claimed that Pope Leo XIV has responded to Capt. Ibrahim Traore in a heartfelt message.
As of May 21, 2025, the video has gained at least 27.8k likes, 3.2k comments, and 13.5k shares.
In the video, Pope Leo XIV is seen in a white robe, with a microphone bent close to his mouth, as he delivers a speech in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall.
Pope XIV can be heard saying: “I received your letter not as a political communique, nor as a demand echoing through diplomatic channels. I received it as a cry of the soul, powerful, principled and painful, from a son of the continent that has known too much loss, too much silence, and too many broken promises, I have read your words, not once…..”
The video has made inroads among Facebook users, appearing here, here, here, here, and here.
The video was also shared on a popular WhatsApp group, PASV Media Public Forum.
A screenshot of the YouTube video was shared on WhatsApp.
Given the video’s vitality and potential to misinform, DUBAWA investigated its authenticity.
Verification
Firstly, DUBAWA verified that the video was initially uploaded by Pan African Dream on YouTube, hitting 5.2k comments and 17 likes.
DUBAWA conducted a Google keyword search, verifying that Vatican News and the Agence d’Information du Burkina have not reported on the story.
The Vatican News is a communication information service provided by the Vatican Dicastery, while the Agence d’Information du Burkina is the Burkinabé government-owned media institution.
Further search by DUBAWA found that the video was manipulated from an original video posted by the Vatican News Official on Facebook when the Pope welcomed Eastern Catholics to the Vatican for the Jubilee of Eastern Churches.
As transcribed from Italian, Pope Leo XIV said, “I think of the diversity of your origins, your glorious history, and the bitter sufferings that many of your communities have endured or continue to endure.”
We subjected part of the fake video to an AI text detector, revealing that the texts were 100% AI-generated.
The Al-text detector reveals that the text on the video was 100% Al-generated.
Another review of the video shows that the video has a Vatican logo, briskly covered by the AI-generated text, explaining the origin of the video.
Conclusion
DUBAWA’s investigation proves that the video is a cheap fake, manipulated from an original video posted by the Vatican News. There’s no official evidence that Pope Leo XIV has responded to Capt. Ibrahim Traore.
