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Claim: A Facebook page shared some images and claimed they were pictures of an attack on Nigerians in South Africa after the semi-final defeat at the 2023 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Cote d’Ivoire.
Verdict: Misleading. The images first went viral after the infamous 2019 Xenophobic attack in South Africa.
Full Text
The battle for supremacy between Nigeria and South Africa, since the Apartheid days, has survived many democratic administrations in both countries. Both nations compete in music, where Amapiano and Afrobeat jostle for international dominance and economic prosperity. Even the two countries are supporting different sides in the ongoing Israel-Hamas War, fueling fears about the sincerity of claims about African unity.
The 2023 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) pitched the two nations against each other at the semi-final stage on Feb. 7, 2024, where the Super Eagles triumphed in a thrilling encounter that led to a 4-2 knockout after a 1-1 draw.
Barely 24 hours later, a Facebook page, Igbo Times Magazine, posted three pictures and a website link, claiming that South Africans attacked Nigerians for the football match loss.
The caption reads, “Breaking News: South Africans Begin Attack On Nigerians In Johannesburg And Looting Of Their [shops] For Losing To Nigeria. At least six Nigerian shops have been set on fire while others are looted by South African anger mob for losing to Nigeria last night.”
Since it was posted on Feb. 8, 2024, it has gained 28 reactions, 38 comments, and 49 reshares.
Also, some users believed the claim, as seen in the comment section. For instance, Meekness Good said, “I said it. What will be the fate of Nigerians in South Africa after they have lost to Nigeria?”
Sally Ibrahim also wrote, “What is wrong with them? It’s just a game.”
These reactions made us fact-check the post.
Verification
Knowing that information of such relevance would be a newsworthy incident, it was surprising to DUBAWA that no credible media platform reported a clash between South Africans and Nigerians after the football match.
We further attempted to click on the link and discovered that the contents simply replicated the Facebook caption. The report did not cite any source or official and gave no further details.
When we uploaded the website link on ScamAdviser, an online tool to verify the credibility of a website, we discovered that the website was created on June 26, 2023, by an unknown owner whose identity is redacted for privacy. ScamAdviser gave the website a low trust score of 40/100.
Some of the reasons for the low score were its inability to analyse the website’s contents and being hosted by a company with a bad reputation, among other highlights.
We used Google Lens, a digital image verification tool, to track the history of the pictures shared on the Facebook posts. Each of them pointed to the Xenophobic attack in 2019.
Michele Spatari took the first picture for AFP Photos in Johannesburg, and the second image showed how Nigerian protesters threw rocks at policemen during an attack on businesses owned by South Africans in Abuja. While we cannot authenticate the origin of the third image, we can confirm that the picture existed before Sept. 2, 2019.
These pictures did not validate the report in Igbo Times Magazine. Also, this is not the first time DUBAWA is fact-checking claims from the website since it began to exist.
Conclusion
Our findings show the images shared on the claim were past xenophobic attacks four years ago, and there were no reported attacks in South Africa after the 2024 AFCON semi-final loss. Therefore, the post is misleading.
