FACT CHECK: Video of Mass Killing Falsely Linked to Recent Attacks in Nigeria
An X user, Senso di giustizia (@sdigiustizia), posted a graphic video claiming it showed Fulani militias recently invading and killing people in a Nigerian community. The post, which did not specify the location of the alleged attack, carried the caption: ”ISLAMIST FURY KNOWS NO TRUCE IN NIGERIA. The vote was not enough to protect them: […]
An X user, Senso di giustizia (@sdigiustizia), posted a graphic video claiming it showed Fulani militias recently invading and killing people in a Nigerian community. The post, which did not specify the location of the alleged attack, carried the caption: ”ISLAMIST FURY KNOWS NO TRUCE IN NIGERIA. The vote was not enough to protect them: @PeterObi did not succeed. Divide Nigeria now and recognize the independence of Biafra to save innocent lives.”
As of the time of this fact-check, the post made on June 21, 2026had garnered about 1.2 million views, 24,000 likes, 10,000 bookmarks and 4,900 reposts.
The same video was also shared by other social media users, including Daniel Somtochukwu (@Somtolism7), who suggested it showed victims of violence in Nigeria and called for justice for those killed.
Findings
Daily Trust subjected the claim and accompanying video to verification using Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) tools.
Several keyframes were extracted from the footage using InVID, a video verification tool. The extracted frames were then subjected to reverse image searches using Google Lens and other search methods.
The investigation found that the video is not connected to any recent attack in Nigeria. Search results traced the footage to earlier online posts predating the viral claim. An earlier version of the video appeared on June 13, 2025, on a website that described the footage as showing people killed during an armed attack. The same video was also shared by another X user, @chinanu97382081, on November 7, 2025, with a different claim that it depicted violence in Nigeria.
Further searches located another version of the footage posted on May 11, 2026, by a military-focused video blogger, Sham Lions_EL. The video carried a Chinese-language caption that read:
”JNIM成员在社交媒体上发视频，展示他们在4月25日马里境内的大规模袭击行动中处决大量平民.”
Using Google Translate, the caption was translated as:
”JNIM members posted videos on social media showing their execution of a large number of civilians during a massive attack in Mali on April 25.”
The findings indicate that the footage had circulated online long before it was recently presented as evidence of a fresh attack by Fulani militias in Nigeria. Available evidence instead links the video to reports concerning an attack in Mali involving Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM), an al-Qaeda-affiliated militant group operating in the Sahel region.
Verdict: Misleading
The viral video did not show a recent attack by Fulani militias in a Nigerian community as claimed. Verification shows that the footage had been circulating online since at least 2025 and was later identified in posts linking it to a mass killing in Mali involving JNIM militants. Therefore, presenting the video as evidence of a recent attack in Nigeria is misleading.