Claim: A Facebook user claims that a lost Iranian drone strayed into Nigeria and was shot down by Nigerian troops in Dan Musa village, Sokoto State.
Verdict: False. DUBAWA discovered that the footage originated from Iraq, not Nigeria.
Full Text
As tensions continue to escalate in the Middle East involving the United States, Israel, and Iran, reports indicate that drones are being widely deployed for surveillance and attacks.
Against this backdrop, a Facebook user shared a video (archived here) and alleged that an Iranian drone lost its way into Nigeria and was shot down by Nigerian troops in Dan Musa village, Sokoto State.
As of Monday, Mar. 2, 2025. The video had gained 30,200 views, 938 reactions, 422 comments, and 64 shares.
The post drew mixed reactions. While some users dismissed it as implausible, others appeared to believe it.
Saleem Muhammad Saraki reacted sarcastically, writing, “So you’re telling me that Nigeria can identify alien drones? Congratulations, Nigeria.”
Another user, Auta Yaro, suggested the claim exposed contradictions in Nigeria’s security situation, implying that if troops could shoot down a foreign drone, they should be able to stop bandits operating in forests.
Given the sensitive geopolitical context of the claim and the engagement it generated, DUBAWA decided to investigate it.
Verification
DUBAWA began by carefully examining the video. The short clip shows what appears to be a crashed Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) lying on lush green grass in a rural setting. However, several inconsistencies quickly emerged.
Sokoto lies within the semi-arid Sahel region. By February and March, much of the landscape is typically dry and brown, not covered in thick green grass as shown in the video.
The claim specifically mentioned “Dan Musa village, Sokoto State”. However, several Google searches of geographic records show no confirmed Dan Musa village in Sokoto State.
Instead, Danmusa (often written as Dan Musa) is a local government area in Katsina State, not Sokoto. This discrepancy further weakens the credibility of the claim.
To trace the origin of the footage, DUBAWA conducted a Google Reverse Image Search using keyframes from the video.
The search revealed that Rudaw Türkçe, the Turkish-language service of Rudaw Media Network, an Erbil-based media organisation, had previously published the same footage.
The Turkish media shared the video on X (formerly Twitter) with a caption in Turkish. The caption translated reads “#VIDEO – An Iranian-made unmanned aerial vehicle crashed in Gırdaçal village, affiliated with Erbil.”
Erbil is a city in northern Iraq, where reports confirmed missile and drone attacks against military bases housing US forces by Iraqi Shiite militia groups in solidarity with Tehran.
There has also been no statement from the Nigerian Defence Headquarters or any military authority confirming that an Iranian drone entered Nigerian airspace or was intercepted.
Conclusion
The claim that a lost Iranian drone strayed into Nigeria and was shot down by Nigerian troops in Dan Musa village, Sokoto State, is false.