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Claim: A viral video purportedly shows schoolchildren being abducted in Nigeria.
Verdict: MISLEADING. Our findings show that the video is that of students humiliated by separatist fighters in Cameroon, not Nigeria.
Full Text
In the last month, there have been various attacks on Nigerians across the country, and this has left a bitter taste on the lips of most Nigerians as regards insecurity in the country. The incidents seem to have occurred in quick succession since February 2024.
On March 7, 2024, at least 287 schoolchildren, some as young as eight years old, were abducted by gunmen who raided their school in Nigeria’s northwestern Kaduna State. In the same week, it was reported that over 200 people from internally displaced persons (IDP) camps were abducted in Ngala local council area in Borno State.
According to the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator in Nigeria, Mohamed Fall, the abductees, comprising women, boys, and girls, were kidnapped when they went to fetch firewood. Amidst all these, 15 pupils were abducted from a Tsangaya school by terrorists who raided Gidan Bakuso in Gada Local Government Area of Sokoto State.
With concerned authorities still reeling in the aftermath of these incidents and their release, a video surfaced online claiming to be that of some schoolchildren being kidnapped in Nigeria. A WhatsApp user posted a video claiming that it was that of some kidnapped schoolchildren at the hands of kidnappers.
The video caption reads, “Kidnapped school children in the hands of kidnappers. This is insanity. Do we have a government in Nigeria or a band of insanely irresponsible fraudsters and looters that have seized power?”
In the one-minute 31-second video, some schoolchildren dressed in white and blue uniforms were asked to strip naked at gunpoint.
The virality of the post, seeing it had been forwarded many times, prompted us to verify if the video was real or if it took place in Nigeria.
Verification
We conducted a Google Reverse Image Search on the video and discovered that the video is old and was posted by Facebook user A, k, A, Clovis on Jan. 13, 2022.
It was tagged, “These are Ambazonia terrorists targeting school children in Cameroon, 12 Jan 2022. They are worse than Boko Haram. They took up guns to fight against the education of Anglophones.”
A keyword search on “Ambazonia” showed that the Ambazonia Defense Forces is a separatist militant organisation that fights for an independent anglophone state in Cameroon and is peculiar to that terrain alone.
Further checks also disclosed a report by Human Rights Watch that revealed Separatist fighters physically assaulted and threatened. They humiliated a group of 11 students, including at least four girls aged 14 to 18, who were on their way to Bokova High School on Jan. 12, 2022.
Bokova High School is located in the Southwest region of Cameroon, not Nigeria, as claimed in the WhatsApp post.
We also found a fact-check by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on Jan. 24, 2022, showing that the incident happened in Cameroon.
Conclusion
The video is misleading. Our findings show that the students in the video were humiliated by separatist fighters in Cameroon, not Nigeria.
