Sudan conflict footage used to portray battle between Nigerian Army and terrorists
|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Claim: A Facebook user shared a video claiming to show terrorists attacking the Nigerian Army.
Verdict: False. The video does not show terrorists fighting the Nigerian Army. Available evidence links the footage to the ongoing conflict in Sudan.
Full Text
The Nigerian Army has continued to engage armed bandits in military operations across the country. However, images and videos from unrelated incidents are sometimes presented on social media as footage of these operations, creating misleading narratives about encounters between the military and bandits.
A Facebook user, @Issiaka the blogger, shared a video claiming it shows terrorists fighting against the Nigerian army.
The 26-second video (archived here) showed two men in an open, sandy area. One of the men was seen carrying and firing a rifle from behind what appeared to be a sand embankment, while another man filmed himself nearby. The text superimposed on the video read, “The terrorists are fighting against our army.”
A post’s caption reads: “Breaking news! The battle between the terrorists and the Nigerian Army.”
As of Aug.10, 2026, the video had garnered 393 likes, 92 comments, 21 shares, and 100,000 views.
DUBAWA scanned through the comments to understand how users received the claim.
@SkhandaMeva InjaYethafa questioned the source of the activities, asking, “Who is funding these things?? It looks like y’all are focusing on South Africa while your own country is burning.”
@Emmanuel Unuakhalu wrote, “They have the confidence because those at the helm of our security guarantees them nothing will happen to them.”
@Gawori Hasan questioned the military’s approach, asking, “Why waste time fighting them on land when you can use airstrikes”
@Tahir Muhammad also inquired, “Which language are they speaking? I think it’s Sudan.”
Other Facebook users also shared it here and here.
DUBAWA decided to verify the claim to establish whether the video showed an actual engagement between the Nigerian Army and terrorists, as its circulation could mislead social media users about ongoing military operations, as well as the security situation in the country.
Verification
DUBAWA broke the video into keyframes using InVID and conducted reverse image searches on them. The first five frames led to a Facebook post shared on July 31, 2026, which contained the same video but with an Arabic caption.
DUBAWA used Google Translate to translate the caption, which reads, “Heroes of Kordofan.”
DUBAWA searched for more information about Kordofan and found that the region has been a major theatre of the ongoing conflict between Sudan’s Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Reports have documented clashes between the two sides in the region, including exchanges of gunfire. This aligns with the shooting and armed confrontation visible in the video.
While most of the other keyframes redirected us to random reports about armed conflicts in Sudan, one led us to another Facebook post by the same user on the same date (July 31, 2026).
The Facebook caption read, “Big changes are coming from Sudan. The government led by Hameti has been facing a severe breakdown involving the Sudanese national army and the tribes of Darfur. RSF used to get support from the Emirates and other countries, like the big Libyan army that had many parts of Haftar, Ethiopia, and Chad, but now it seems to be over after the RSF team faced a major breakdown and troop losses. They have been planning, and they have done many parts to the Sudanese national army.”
In all of these searches, DUBAWA found no evidence linking the video to Nigeria. The difference in the dates the video was shared also raised further questions about the claim. Users who shared the video related to the ongoing conflict in Sudan posted it in July 2026, while Facebook users who linked it to Nigeria shared it in August 2026.
To further verify the claim, DUBAWA searched the Nigerian Army’s official social media handles for details of such a recent incident or the video itself, but found none.
DUBAWA also searched for recent reports of an armed confrontation between the Nigerian Army and terrorists but found no credible reports of such an incident. The video only shows results related to Sudan.
Conclusion
The claim that the video shows terrorists attacking the Nigerian Army is false. The evidence DUBAWA found points to Sudan, not Nigeria.
