Beware of these three hoaxes targeting the army or French journalists in Niger

Verification in a nutshell

• A first video would show the French army resupplying terrorists by helicopter, but it actually shows a supply of troops from Operation Barkhane in 2019
• A second publication shares images believed to prove a bombardment of the Niger army by French troops. It is however the fire of a market, on February 15th.
• The third video claims to show a “propaganda report” shot by French journalists, but it is actually from a 2008 documentary about uranium in Niger.

First example: a false supply of “terrorists” by the French army

In a desert landscape, a helicopter towing a net approaches pick-ups. A few seconds later, several men in fatigues, whose skin we guess is white despite the poor quality of the images, unload boxes.

What this video, posted on March 14, shows ? For this account, very hostile to France and which presents itself as a Nigerian media, there is no doubt : “Watch this video where the Francafrique arm terrorists sahel“, he shouts.

According to him, the scene took place in “the region of Tillabery”, a border area with Mali where a terrorist attack made at least 17 Nigerian military dead on 10 last February.

Reading the comments, these statements make people react. “Stop your misinformation. These images are French soldiers,” says journalist Matteo Maillard, who accuses the account of having “stolen them from Paris Match”.

By typing “Niger Tillaberi Paris Match” on YouTube, it is indeed possible to find the report from which these images are taken. Dating from July 2019, it follows the work of French parachute commandos deployed as part of Operation Barkhane, active in the region at the time.

The scene of the helicopter, at 5’04, actually shows the supply of these troops, mounted on mobile jeeps.

This video therefore does not show the French army supplying terrorists, but its own troops, on the border between Niger and Mali. A verification already carried out by the Malian media Assoblog Mali from March 21.

Second example: a photo of a fire in a market in Niger

Other images supposed to accuse the French army, these shots showing fire scenes, relayed by this Burkinabe account accustomed to false information.

In a February 17 post, he claims that the images would show the result of a bombardment by Nigerien troops. Carried out by “the French special forces present in the country”, it would have been ordered by the “French chief of staff of Barkhane”, an operation yet completed since November 2022.

The reason for this attack on their Nigerian allies ? Also according to this account, “they decided to bomb the convoy to camouflage the identity of the French people caught who are in collaboration with the jihadists”. The French army would therefore have wanted to hide its collaboration with terrorist movements.

A reverse image search (see here how to do it) undermines this story, already verified by AFP Factual. The first two images (top and bottom right) actually show the burning of a market in Tahoua, northeast of the capital Niamey. They are found in this local press articledated February 15, 2023.

The third (bottom left in the post) is of too poor quality to identify.

However, we find traces of him in publications around the attack of February 10 against a patrol of Nigerien forces. This February 16 tweet below is itself spreading misinformation using the same image of the market fire. He overestimates the toll of “fallen soldiers” at 71, while 17 soldiers were killed in this attack, according to the Nigerien authorities.

Third example : a “propaganda report” ?

The French army is not the only one accused of complicity with terrorist movements. The media of this country are also targeted, as in this publication of February 23.

“The French Force claims to be looking for terrorists, and yet […] it even sends journalists to do propaganda reports,” comments this Ivorian account.

On the images, we can see a man wearing fatigues and a scarf detailing, in French, the origins of the armament mounted on his pick-up. “This weapon, there, it was seized in Tazerzait”, he says. A city in the northwest of the country, far from the Tillabéri region, where the incidents of recent weeks have been concentrated.

But where do these images come from? AFP Factual managed to find their origin in a documentary dating from 2008, “Niger, the battle for uranium”.

The excerpt used is at 10’49. The man questioned is in fact a leader of the Movement of Nigeriens for Justice (MNJ), a Tuareg rebel movement active at the time in the north of the country.

Fighting against the Niamey government from 2007 to 2009, this rebellion carried economic and political demands, particularly around the sharing of wealth from uranium resources. It is difficult to make the link with the jihadist movements which are hitting Niger today.

Again, therefore, the context of these images has been manipulated. This is not a “propaganda report” showing members of a terrorist movement, but an extract from an old documentary, filming a Tuareg rebellion that has now ended.

The same types of misinformation in Burkina Faso or Mali

Several of these intoxes come from Malian or Burkinabe accounts, regularly sharing content favorable to the juntas in power since the coups. May 2021 And September 2022 in these two countries.

Since then, Mali and Burkina Faso have ended their military cooperation with France. They are today at the heart of disinformation campaigns targeting countries where there are still French soldiers.

In Niger, the latter are particularly present on the border with Malias part of Operation Almahou against jihadist groups.