Video of Ghana market fire shared in false claims about attacks on Bangladesh's Hindu minority
The accompanying video shows a smoke-filled scene with a number of small fires burning amongst a field of debris.
Image
Screenshot of the false post, taken on March 28, 2025
The video also spread on and X posts by India-based users claiming it showed a targeted attack on Hindu houses in Bangladesh.
New Delhi has repeatedly accused Dhaka of failing to adequately protect its minority Hindu citizens, who became targets of a string of reprisal attacks in the chaotic aftermath of Sheikh Hasina's ouster because of their perceived support of her government (archived link).
The current caretaker administration denies these charges.
Some users appeared to believe the video was filmed in Bangladesh.
One wrote: "If the Bharatiya Janata Party and Modi were not here in India, then the situation would have been the same too."
"The time has come for Hindus to unite," wrote another.
A reverse image search on Google using keyframes from the video led to an X post by Ghanaian radio station Citi FM on January 2, 2025 sharing the same clip (archived link).
The post says the eyewitness video shows devastation after a fire at the Kantamanto market, in Ghana's capital Accra.
"Ahhh, Kantamanto, everywhere burning," a man says at the beginning of the clip.
Image
Screenshot comparison of the video in the false post (left) and video shared by Ghanian outlet Citi FM's on X (right)
AFP reported a huge blaze on January 1 destroyed vast sections of the largest used clothes market in Accra, leaving the sprawling hub of the country's informal economy in ashes and destroying goods worth millions of the local cedi currency (archived link).
Further keyword and reverse image searches found another video on TikTok about the fire in Kantamanto taken from a similar angle (archived link). The three utility poles seen in the City FM video match those seen in the TikTok clip.
Image
Screenshot comparison of the false video (left) and the TikTok clip (right), with similarities highlighted by AFP
A Ghana Commercial Bank building near the market can also be seen at the beginning of the TikTok video (archived link).
Other local media outlets used the same clip in their reports on the fire (archived here and here).
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