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The post has been viewed more than 170,000 times and has been reposted 2,600 times since it was posted.
The same claim was repeated on a Facebook group linked to the Nigerian separatist movement Indigenous People of Biafra (see here) as well as on Twitter (here and here).
The publications also identify foreign media organizations and the United Nations to increase their popularity.
At least 198 other people were killed when armed gangs attacked several villages in north-central Nigeria’s north-central Plateau State between 23 and 26 December 2023 (archived here).
The state, between the Muslim-majority north and the Christian-majority south, has been plagued by ethnic and devout tensions for years.
The attacks displaced some 20,000 people, mostly women and children, in some 20 villages.
But the images purported to show the terrible aftermath of the violence in Plateau state are unrelated.
A search for opposing symbols led to the same symbols in this Facebook post published on Oct. 4, 2022, more than a year before the December 2023 attacks in Plateau State.
According to the caption, written in Hausa, the photos show the victims of an attack that took place in Nigeria’s Taraba state, which is nearly 200 kilometres from where the December 2023 massacres happened.
On October 5, 2022, a Facebook page (archived here) called “Fulani News Media” posted a video of a motorcade narrated through a guy – possibly the one filming – speaking in Hausa.
The voice in the video talks about the murders in Taraba and mentions that the riders were transporting the bodies of their murdered relatives to the police station.
A road sign in the footage shows that filming took place in Bali, a district of Taraba state.
A date-filtered Google search for the keywords “Attack on Taraba State, Bali” placed news here and here about the October 2022 attack (archived here and here).
At least 12 other people were reportedly killed when gunmen ambushed the village of Dogon-Ruwa in Bali and opened fire indiscriminately.
Additionally, we located an Instagram post (archived here) describing the same attack and using the same images as in the false posts we are debunking.
See this on Instagram
A post shared via Melodyinter (@melodyinter. com2)
A comparison of the video excerpts and the photographs contained in the fake messages showed that at least two motorcyclists gave the impression on both.
Their clothes, hats and passengers’ attire match.
AFP Fact Check has already debunked the claim that it was intended to show the consequences of the attack here.