{"id":15577,"date":"2023-08-12T17:43:20","date_gmt":"2023-08-12T16:43:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/?p=15577"},"modified":"2023-08-12T17:43:24","modified_gmt":"2023-08-12T16:43:24","slug":"video-of-niger-ruling-party-headquarters-on-fire-used-to-depict-attack-on-nigerian-embassy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/video-of-niger-ruling-party-headquarters-on-fire-used-to-depict-attack-on-nigerian-embassy\/","title":{"rendered":"Video of Niger ruling party headquarters on fire used to depict attack on Nigerian embassy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Claim: Viral video shows Nigerian Embassy in Niger on fire.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Verdict: FALSE. Our findings reveal that the building in the video is that of Niger\u2019s ruling party\u2013 the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also debunked the assertion.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Text<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The atmosphere has been tense since July 26, 2023, when the President of Niger, Mohamed Bazoum, was detained by the Presidential Guard inside his palace in the capital Niamey. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite intervention<\/a> efforts by ECOWAS, the Niger Junta has remained defiant and continues to hold on to power while keeping President Mohamed Bazoum in detention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the ECOWAS Heads of State have vowed<\/a> to use force to dislodge the junta in Niger if it continues on this course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amidst all these, in the early hours of Saturday, August 11, 2023, a 45-second video alleging that the Nigerian Embassy in Niamey, Niger was on fire started going viral and was shared with us for verification.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Screenshot for the request for verification with the claim.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Seeing a claim on such a sensitive issue was going viral; we decided to investigate.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Verification<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A close look at the video revealed a lion-face logo on the building and the word \u201cBienvenue,\u201d which means welcome in French.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Screenshot of the video with the clues identified.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We tried using Google Translator to get the meaning of the comment made in a few seconds in the video but got nothing.  We then conducted a reverse image search using different search engines to find the video or the building with the clues identified but found nothing related. We also checked for the metadata of the video but found none.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We conducted a Keyword search on Twitter, leading to several posts<\/a> like this one<\/a> by African Observatory (@AfricanWatchman) with the same video and similar claim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We then researched the image of the Nigerian embassy in Niamey. We compared the picture found<\/a> with screenshots from the video but found no similarities in the building’s colour or structure.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Image of the Nigerian embassy in Niamey on the left and screenshots from the video on the right.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Seeing the reverse image search and other searches were not yielding the desired result, we used the clues earlier identified to conduct several keyword searches to find the building, and this led to a fact-check published by AFP<\/a> Fact Check and Reuters<\/a> on August 9 and 4, 2023, respectively. These fact-checks revealed that the video had been used to depict an attack on the French Embassy when it was from an attack on Niger\u2019s ruling party, Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our keyword search also led to the image of the attacked party\u2019s building, showing the earlier identified clues<\/a>. The building is located at 613 Avenue de l’OUA, BP 10894, Niamey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Image of the ruling party building attacked with the clues highlighted.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We contacted the Spokesperson of Nigeria\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Francisca Omoyuli, requesting a comment on the viral video but did not get a response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shortly after, a press release<\/a> was shared on the official Twitter account for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nigeria (@NigeriaMFA), debunking this viral claim.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Screenshot of the press release by the Ministry of foreign affairs.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Our findings reveal the building in the video is that of Niger\u2019s ruling party, the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism, not the Nigerian Embassy in Niamey, Niger. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also debunked the assertion in a press release. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Claim: Viral video shows Nigerian Embassy in Niger on fire. Verdict: FALSE. Our findings reveal that the building in the video is that of Niger\u2019s ruling party\u2013 the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also debunked the assertion.\u00a0 Full Text The atmosphere has been tense since July 26, 2023, when the President of Niger, Mohamed Bazoum, was detained by the Presidential Guard inside his palace in the capital Niamey.  Despite intervention efforts by ECOWAS, the Niger Junta has remained defiant and continues to hold on to power while keeping President Mohamed Bazoum in detention. However, the ECOWAS Heads of State have vowed to use force to dislodge the junta in Niger if it continues on this course. Amidst all these, in the early hours of Saturday, August 11, 2023, a 45-second video alleging that the Nigerian Embassy in Niamey, Niger was on fire started going viral and was shared with us for verification. Seeing a claim on such a sensitive issue was going viral; we decided to investigate.\u00a0 Verification  A close look at the video revealed a lion-face logo on the building and the word \u201cBienvenue,\u201d which means welcome in French. We tried using Google Translator to get the meaning of the comment made in a few seconds in the video but got nothing.  We then conducted a reverse image search using different search engines to find the video or the building with the clues identified but found nothing related. We also checked for the metadata of the video but found none. We conducted a Keyword search on Twitter, leading to several posts like this one by African Observatory (@AfricanWatchman) with the same video and similar claim. We then researched the image of the Nigerian embassy in Niamey. We compared the picture found with screenshots from the video but found no similarities in the building’s colour or structure.\u00a0 Seeing the reverse image search and other searches were not yielding the desired result, we used the clues earlier identified to conduct several keyword searches to find the building, and this led to a fact-check published by AFP Fact Check and Reuters on August 9 and 4, 2023, respectively. These fact-checks revealed that the video had been used to depict an attack on the French Embassy when it was from an attack on Niger\u2019s ruling party, Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism.\u00a0 Our keyword search also led to the image of the attacked party\u2019s building, showing the earlier identified clues. The building is located at 613 Avenue de l’OUA, BP 10894, Niamey. We contacted the Spokesperson of Nigeria\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Francisca Omoyuli, requesting a comment on the viral video but did not get a response. Shortly after, a press release was shared on the official Twitter account for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Nigeria (@NigeriaMFA), debunking this viral claim.\u00a0\u00a0 Conclusion  Our findings reveal the building in the video is that of Niger\u2019s ruling party, the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism, not the Nigerian Embassy in Niamey, Niger. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has also debunked the assertion in a press release. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"hannibal_claim_source":"","hannibal_source_label":"","hannibal_card_color":"blue","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[1571],"tags":[],"verdict":[],"ppma_author":[1106],"class_list":["post-15577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fact-check"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8R6dE-43f","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":1106,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"lois-ugbede","display_name":"Lois Ugbede","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Lois.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Lois.jpg"},"author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"","first_name":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Niger-Flag-e1609151995632-1.jpg?fit=900%2C540&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15577"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15579,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15577\/revisions\/15579"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15577"},{"taxonomy":"verdict","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/verdict?post=15577"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dubawa.org\/dir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=15577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}