Claim: An X user (formerly Twitter) shared a caption along with a clip alleging that a circulating South African mob was killing Nigerians.
Verdict: False! DUBAWA found that the footage was recycled and has been online since April 2023, showing a crowd killing 13 suspected gang members in Haiti.
Full Text
Anti-foreigner sentiment among South Africans has recently increased in the face of persistent unemployment, inequality, and bleak economic prospects besetting the rainbow nation.
Politicians have exacerbated the situation by blaming foreigners for high crime rates and the strain on public services. These rising tensions have led to deadly attacks on immigrants. In April 2022, for instance, a Zimbabwean man was burned alive in a town north of Johannesburg. Businesses owned by Nigerians have also been targeted in past episodes of xenophobic violence.
In response to the 2019 attacks, Nigerians demonstrated anger by trying to sabotage South African-owned businesses in Nigeria. At the time, protesters set fire to many entrances leading into a busy mall housing the South African retail store Shoprite and looted groceries and toiletries from the supermarket in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial centre. Another outlet belonging to the chain and one owned by South-African mobile company MTN were vandalised in Ibadan city in southwest Nigeria despite appeals from the government for peace.
On May 16, 2024, Simon Ekpa shared a 30-second worrisome video of some people bleeding and lying down in an unconscious state that looked as if they were dead. While the video still played, it showed a crowd watching as several men were burned to death in the street. Their bodies smoulder under piles of used tires as one individual tries to escape the flames but is beaten until he no longer moves. Blood stains the street.
Attached to the violent video was a lengthy caption from Mr. Ekpa that reads: “Dear Julius Malema, this barbarism by South Africans against fellow Africans is completely unacceptable, this is not what Mandela fought for and I believe you are not fighting as pan African from SA and representing this. This is coming from your country.”
The caption continues: “The people these guys are killing are Biafrans and Yorubas, they came to SA with Nigeria identity shouldn’t be a death sentence{sic}. If something is not done, this will escalate to SA businesses in some parts of Nigeria. We call on you @Julius_S_Malema to do something immediately to stop this xenophobia in SA. If anyone is not needed in your country, please deport them, don’t kill them like this.”
Various people were in full support of the act, as drawn from the comments that gathered under the post.
One user @Ohajip said, “South African people are lazy, which results in envy and jealousy. None of them will ever know peace again in their miserable life.”
@MyfreedomLegion also added in an aggressive tone: “This is how South Africa will pay Igbos after harbouring & taking care of Mandela for them. One thing most African countries like Kenya & South Africa should understand is that we don’t forgive and forget. Retaliation is the best form to make peace. When due, we shall remind them.”
Others also affirmed that the post was important, and others kept calling on Julius Malema to do something about the incident they claimed happened in South Africa.
Julius Malema is a South-African politician who is the founder and leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a populist far-left political party known for the red berets and military-style outfits worn by its members. Read more here.
The post had 77,000 views, 2,200 reposts, 171 quotes, 2,200 likes, and 141 bookmarks. As expected, Nigerians in the comments expressed anger and even hatred for South Africans over the clip that was shared. But was it genuine information?
DUBAWA had to put that question at the forefront because the X user declares himself the leader of a faction of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), which is pushing for the independence of Nigeria’s southeast.
Verification
DUBAWA scanned the video and conducted a Google Reverse Image Search on it. The results revealed its publication on the “Documenting Reality” website, alongside various other short videos, on April 24, 2023. Furthermore, DUBAWA’s investigation led us to credible sources such as Al Jazeera and France 24, which reported on the incident’s aftermath in April 2023. Videos documenting the event can be found here, here, and here.
A supporting report, citing the Associated Press (AP), stated that the videos showed 13 gang members being burned alive in Haiti. The disturbing scenes closely matched those seen in the video shared by Mr. Ekpa.
A keyword search for “Haiti 13 gang members burned alive” led to another video published on X on April 24, 2023, by an account called “Edson Samson.” The post explained that the footage featured “police and the population killed and burned bodies of 14 gang members armed with rifles and handguns” in the Haitian capital city, Port-au-Prince.
The video also captures at least two individuals in police attire kicking the men, who are still alive and lying on the ground amid a pile of tyres. While not entirely identical, certain visual cues in the video align with those present in Ekpa’s misleading clip. For instance, one of the suspected gang members is identifiable by their Nike sneakers and camouflage trousers.
Further keyword searches yielded multiple media reports detailing a mob’s killing of 13 gang members in Haiti, including the AP story referenced on the “Documenting Reality” site. AP also released a video of the incident on its official YouTube channel.
Notably, various visual elements, such as a black Hyundai SUV, a red car, and a motorcycle, are discernible in both clips. At the ten-second mark in Edson Samson’s video, a man wearing yellow boots is also visible beneath the black Hyundai, mirroring a similar occurrence in the misleading clip.
Conclusion
DUBAWA found that the footage from April 2023 was recycled to create a false claim in May 2024. All results show that the incident happened in Haiti, not South Africa. The claim is one stark example of how misleading information can spread disinformation and incite anger.
The researcher produced this fact-check per the DUBAWA 2024 Kwame KariKari Fellowship, in partnership with Prime Progress, to facilitate the ethos of “truth” in journalism and enhance media literacy in the country.
A recent claim on X (formerly Twitter) suggested that a South African mob was killing Nigerians. The footage accompanying the claim was found to be recycled and actually depicted a mob in Haiti killing 13 suspected gang members in April 2023.
Anti-foreigner sentiment and violence against immigrants in South Africa have risen due to economic difficulties, with politicians blaming foreigners for crime and strained public services. Notable incidents include the 2019 attacks on businesses owned by Nigerians and the 2022 murder of a Zimbabwean man.
Simon Ekpa's shared video on May 16, 2024, with a caption condemning the alleged actions and calling on South African politician Julius Malema to address the xenophobia, garnered significant reactions and anger, particularly from Nigerians.
However, DUBAWA's verification revealed the video was originally from Haiti. Using Google Reverse Image Search and cross-referencing credible sources such as Al Jazeera and AP, they confirmed the video's authenticity and its context in Haiti, not South Africa.
This investigation underscores the risks of spreading disinformation, which can incite unnecessary anger and tension.
