By Pascal Ibe
Introduction
Attacks by the bandits and terrorists, which claimed many lives and displaced millions of people, have become a new normal in Nigeria’s North-west.
The emergence of the Lakurawa terror group in 2025 has heightened attacks on locals in the region with security agencies not doing enough to end the killings.
In recent months, farmers, villagers, politicians, security operatives, and even students have been targets for these terrorists.
Claim
An image of victims killed and wrapped in blood-stained clothes, ready to be buried as a result of the terror attacks has surfaced on the X platform.
An X user, @musa_kiliya, who posted the image on 17 August, claimed that this happened in Kebbe Local Government, Sokoto State.
He also claimed that “more than 30 people were killed by bandits, some are yet to be identified.”
The post attracted expressions of sadness from other X users who believed the claim.
“For how long Sir? Yet we are still here thinking this is a religious thing; if we no open eye, our country will be no more one day,” @Excel7474 lamented over the post.
Verification
First, FACTWATCH Nigeria subjected the image of the dead victims to Google Image Reverse Search and the results led us to news websites and social media posts where this photo appeared.
We discovered that the image first appeared online on 23 July.
An X user, @Edrees4P (Idris 4 Peace), posted this image and claimed that it was after bandits massacred 23 farmers in Sauna/Ruwan Gora community, Talata Mafara Local Government Area of Zamfara State.
The X user also said that more than 50 people have been hospitalised, the majority of them women and children.
He added that this attack happened in a village near the hometown of Nigeria’s Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle.
VerityNews reported that according to local accounts, the victims were attacked while carrying out farming activities. The injured, the majority of whom are women and children, have been taken to hospitals for treatment.
This image circulated online between 23 and 25 July here and here.
To authenticate this further, FACTWATCH Nigeria found that reputable news organisations in Nigeria and internationally reported the incident in July.
Reuters, Punch, Daily Trust and others reported the story.
However, they did not use the image in the story because it was gory.
Meanwhile, news websites have confirmed that at least 28 people, including the Chief Imam of Ungushi Izala Jumu’at Mosque, Imam Aliyu, were reportedly killed when bandits attacked Ungushi community in Kebbe Local Government Area of Sokoto State on Sunday evening, 16 August.
Verdict
The attack by bandits, which left over 28 dead, is confirmed to be true. However, the image used to depict the Sokoto dead victims was a different incident in Zamfara. Therefore, it is MISLEADING.
