Map of Burkina Faso. Photo Source: iStock.
|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Claim: A Facebook page, Arise Again, shared a video claiming it showed bandits attacking a Nigerian military base.
Verdict: Misleading. DUBAWA found that the video is not from Nigeria. It depicts an attack carried out by the Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) insurgent group against security forces in Burkina Faso
Full Text
On July 20, 2026, a Facebook page “Arise Again” posted a video (archived here) claiming to show bandits attacking a Nigerian military base in a fierce gun battle.
The footage shows heavily armed fighters exchanging gunfire, with a caption claiming that bandits had launched an attack on a military formation.
As of July 23, 2026, the post had attracted 32,000 views, 229 likes, 36 comments and 200 shares, many of whom accepted the claim as a recent security incident in the country.
Nicholas Bonoh queried, “Why be say bandit dey know army base but army no dey know bandits camp”.
Joseph Gabriel also responded with “half of them actively recruited in the army.”
Given the high engagement the post generated and the recurring circulation of recycled conflict videos in recent times to depict insecurity in Nigeria, DUBAWA investigated the authenticity of the video.
Verification
DUBAWA extracted key frames from the video and conducted reverse-image searches.
The search revealed that the footage had appeared online before being posted by the page and was linked to reports of an attack carried out by the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) in Burkina Faso, not Nigeria.
JNIM is a Salafi violent extremist organisation that aligns itself with Al-Qa’ida’s global violent extremist ideology. JNIM exploits local divisions and grievances to grow its support in West Africa. They are primarily based in Burkina Faso and Mali and active in parts of Nigeria and the Niger Republic.
Further checks showed that the same video had previously circulated on social media with false claims that it depicted an attack on Nigerian military personnel. DUBAWA found the video shared by different users here, here, and here around November 2025 with the same claim.
DUBAWA also found Zagazola Makama, a security analyst, who independently debunked the same footage here on X after it was falsely presented as an attack on Nigerian troops. The report identified the video as showing a JNIM attack in Burkina Faso, a finding consistent with DUBAWA’s verification.
Similarly, Daily Post and TVC News had earlier reported on March 27, 2025, that the Nigerian Army debunked a viral video that depicts shooting on a Nigerian military base in the North. According to the report, it was an attack carried out by Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam Wal-Muslimin (JNIM) against Burkinabe security and defence forces in Pama on January 29-30, 2025.
The available evidence indicates that the footage was recycled and falsely presented as a recent attack on a Nigerian military base.
Conclusion
The video does not show bandits attacking a Nigerian military base. The video is of a JNIM attack in Burkina Faso that has repeatedly been circulated online with different false claims linking it to insecurity in Nigeria. The claim is therefore misleading.
“This fellowship is implemented by the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) with support from the European Union”
