Zurmi, mentioned in the claim, is a town in Zamfara state in northwest Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Zamfara state has been one of the hardest hit by the prolific kidnappings in Nigeria\u2019s north.<\/p>\n
Published by an opposition supporter called \u201cSerah Ibrahim\u201d, the post features a 30-second clip of people walking briskly over dusty ground.<\/p>\n
Other X accounts (here<\/a> and here<\/a>) repeated the claim.<\/p>\n Weeks before the allegation surfaced,\u00a0gunmen attacked the town<\/a> and attempted to kidnap its emir (archived here<\/a>). The assailants destroyed electricity and telecommunication facilities after their kidnapping attempt failed.<\/p>\n In December 2023, international aid group M\u00e9decins Sans Fronti\u00e8res (MSF)\u00a0temporarily withdrew<\/a> some of its staff from the town after fighting around the local hospital had escalated (archived here<\/a>).<\/p>\n Two months earlier, the Nigerian military said about 100 gunmen were killed<\/a> in the state (archived here<\/a>).<\/p>\n The gangs, notorious for mass kidnappings from schools and colleges in recent years, maintain camps hidden in a vast forest straddling Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, and Niger states.<\/p>\n But the claim that the video showed people fleeing Zurmi after 500 people were kidnapped is false.<\/p>\n To verify the claim, AFP Fact Check took a screenshot of the misleading video and carried out a reverse image search<\/a>.<\/p>\n We found that the video has been online since 2021.<\/p>\n Germany-based charity organisation SAIDA International shared a\u00a0longer version of the clip<\/a> on its Facebook page on June 8, 2021 (archived here<\/a>).<\/p>\n The caption, written in German, explained that the footage showed \u201cthe people of Burkina Faso\u201d on the run \u201cin their own country\u201d.<\/p>\n It also included the hashtag\u00a0#solhan<\/a>, which suggested that the video showed residents of Solhan<\/a>, a town close to Burkina Faso\u2019s border with Niger and Mali.<\/p>\n A Burkina Faso news outlet, Lobs Paalga, published another version of the video on its YouTube channel<\/a> the same day as SAIDA (archived here<\/a>). It said the clip showed \u201cinhabitants of Solhan\u201d fleeing their town.<\/p>\nBurkina Faso<\/h3>\n