Maputo, 26 Sep (AIM) – A shocking video showing civilians massacred by soldiers, and purporting to be from the conflict against jihadist groups in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, is not from Mozambique at all.
The video, which has circulated widely on Mozambican social media, shows dozens of bodies lying in a shallow grave, while armed men fire incessantly, shouting “Allahu Akbar!” (“God is great”, in Arabic).
The video claims that this shows the “slaughter of Christians by the Islamic State in Central Africa” in Cabo Delgado. It also asks why the world, and particularly the United Nations, is silent in the face of such massacres.
The fact checking service of the Mozambican chapter of the regional press freedom body MISA (Media Institute of Southern Africa) has investigated the video, discovering that, while it is genuine, it is not from Cabo Delgado, or from anywhere else in Mozambique.
In reality the video was shot in Burkina Faso, and shows a massacre perpetrated by the jihadist group Jama’at Musrat Al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JMIN), which is affiliated to the terrorist network Al-Qaeda. The jihadists killed more than 400 civilians, forcing them to lie on top of each other in trenches.
This is not the first time this video has been used for disinformation purposes. It was also used to describe an alleged massacre in the Sudanese province of Darfur, committed by the militia of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who supposedly executed more than 700 people accused of spying for the Sudanese army.
But investigation showed that the video has no more relation with Sudan than with Mozambique.
(AIM)
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