By Pascal Ibe

Introduction

The insurgency in Borno State is a long-running conflict driven by extremist groups like [Boko Haram] and the [Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP)], which have caused massive displacement, casualties, and destruction since 2009.

Nigerian soldiers continue to face deadly attacks and casualties during ongoing counter-insurgency operations against Boko Haram and ISWAP forces in Borno.

Insurgents have continued to target forward operating bases, military camps, and supply convoys using asymmetric tactics, including improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and coordinated gun battles.

Claim

A video of an attack on a military base in Borno State, which resulted in the deaths of soldiers, recently surfaced on Nigeria’s social media space.

On the X platform, pages claimed that it was a recent attack.

An X user, Somtolism7 on 20 August posted the covered clip of the bodies of the slain soldiers and wrote: “Just inđŸ˜± :   Fulani terrorists allegedly invaded a military camp in the North and killed 8 soldiers but they are busy bombarding places in Anambra State”

Another X user, VOLTOXf who also shared the video on 20 August, captioned it, “Breaking: Fulani Islamic terrorists attacked a Nigerian Army camp, captured every single soldier, and slaughtered eight soldiers.”

The video also appeared here.

Verification

A simple check using an Image Reverse Search website showed that the attack occurred in June and not recently.

A YouTube channel, The TimesOfNigeriaHQ posted the same video on 5 June with the caption, ” Boko Haram attacks military base in Borno, beheads soldiers”

FACTWATCH Nigeria observed that this video also trended on some X pages here and here at that time.

But to further confirm that the attack happened in June, we did a keyword search on Google and found many reputable news websites that reported the attack.

TheICIR reported that on 5 June, terrorists attacked a Nigerian Army Forward Operating Base in Mandaragirau, Biu Local Government Area of Borno State, killing five soldiers and three members of the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF).

Confirming the incident in a statement on Friday, the Acting Media Information Officer of Operation HADIN KAI, Haruna Sani, a lieutenant colonel, said that the attack targeted the military formation under the 25 Brigade, Sector 2 of Operation HADIN KAI but troops successfully repelled the assault despite heavy rainfall and poor visibility.

Premium Times and The Washington Post also reported the attack here and here.

However, the exact number of soldiers who died in the attack, as given by the media organisations, is different. While some reported five casualties, others said eight died.

Verdict

Investigations showed that the clip that surfaced online last week, which claims to show a recent attack at a military base in Borno, occurred in June.

Therefore the claim is MISLEADING.