Claim: An X user, Crusader (@Armylucifer001), shared a video asserting that Bandits have trained their wives on how to handle rifles.
Verdict: False! The video is old and unrelated to Nigeria. Available reports link the video to a 2018 incident in Sudan.
Full Text
An X user, The Crusader (@Armylucifer001), posted a video (archived link) claiming that bandits are now training their wives on how to handle rifles. In the video, a woman is shown holding a rifle, with voices in the background talking to her as she smiles while learning to handle it.
The caption of the video reads, “Bandits have trained their wives on how to operate AK-47 rifles.”
As of July 13, 2026, the post had over 33,700 views, 76 likes, and 56 bookmarks. The post also garnered thousands of likes and views on X, Instagram and Facebook: here, here, and here.
Akalakuta Tufa, in a comment, disputed the claim’s validity. Akalakuta wrote, “We are not civilians; we should be regimented. Please, I respect this platform as a testing ground. Please, admin, verify some videos before posting them; it will make us professionals. It may be true, but not in Nigeria.”
Yata McDonald, another user in the comments, wrote, “Supportive wife of a successful bandit”
DUBAWA decided to verify the claim due to the sensitive security issue raised and conflicting comments.
Verifcation
To verify the claim, we conducted a keyword search but found no mention of it in reputable media organisations.
We conducted a reverse image search on keyframes from the video. Our searches led to earlier versions of the video posted in 2018, several years before this claim falsely linked the incident to Nigeria.
Our search led us to a post by Sudan News (archived link) featuring the same video of a woman handling a rifle amid chaos in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, on March 3, 2018.
The captions of the video, written in Arabic, “.. ويتواصل مسلسل الفوضى في #السودان !” were translated to, “The chaos continues in #Sudan!”
In March 2018, Sudan experienced what was described as an escalating political and economic chaos driven by severe currency devaluation, a tripling of bread prices, and anti-austerity demonstrations.
Further search also led us to a YouTube page by @alhowshalsudani, featuring the same video with the caption “حتى النساء تعلمن ضرب السلاح في دارفور,” translated as “even women learned how to shoot weapons in Darfur, Sudan.”
The video was published on Mar. 5, 2018.
Conclusion
The video shared on social media is unrelated to Nigeria. The video is from a March 2018 incident in Sudan. Therefore, the claim is misleading.