By Eniola Amadu
Claim:
An old video of an Ethiopian military group has been circulating on social media, particularly on X, IG, and Facebook, Tiktok suggesting that bandits are gathering to attack.
Verdict:
The claim that bandits are gathering and preparing to attack is False, the video is a recirculated one from Ethopia.
Full Text:
A X user, @NemeremNjoku claimed the video in circulation originated from Nigeria. In the same way, multiple users have posted the same video appearing here, here, here, here amongst multiple reposts, thereby giving the video more publicity claiming they are bandits.
A screenshot of the claim
These posts come amid multiple bandit attacks in Nigeria alongside kidnap and abduction cases, however, are the people with arms as shown in the video bandits in Nigeria? Is the video recorded in Nigeria?
Verification:
FactCheckAfrica scrutinized the video and the quality drew more skepticism on the authenticity of the video. Therefore, we conducted a google reverse image search on the video using screenshots taken at regular intervals. It was discovered that the video in circulation is not recent but had sufficed online in December 2025 with a facebook user posting the video , also causing widespread panic as a major Nigerian Politician Ned Nwoko posted the same video claiming they are bandits.
Further findings linked us to several relatable videos from an Ethiopian rebel military group, the Oromo Liberation Army. This is because the hairdo and clothes align with the recycled video shared online as seen in a news report published by the WION.
Findings also revealed the same video had been fact-checked by Dubawa in 2025.
Conclusion:
The video circulating claiming that bandits are gathering is false. FactCheckAfrica’s findings reveals that the video in circulation originates from Ethiopia and is recirculated to depict the current state of insecurity in Nigeria. There is no evidence connecting the recorded video to Nigeria.
