Post falsely claims images show Nigerian children hospitalised after eating local dish
'Yariba' is an ethnic slur against Yorubas. 'Ewedu' is a green soup made from jute leaves, while 'amala' is a soft, stretchy Nigerian dough made from yam flour. A popular dish in Nigeria combines amala and ewedu with stew.
Image
Screenshot showing the false post, taken on August 5, 2025
Attached to the post are two images showing three children who appear to be unhappy with the food in front of them.
Shared more than 500 times, the claim was published by an account called 'Mike Ejeagha'. AFP Fact Check's review of the account shows it regularly shares ethnic slurs targeting ethnicities in Nigeria, especially the Yoruba people.
Ethnic slander and tribalistic rhetoric have become increasingly common on X among Nigerian users of Igbo and Yoruba descent, especially in the aftermath of the 2023 presidential election (archived here).
The contest saw Labour Party's Peter Obi, an Igbo from the southeast, face off against Bola Tinubu, a Yoruba from the southwest — a dynamic that fed ethnic tensions online.
Supporters of both candidates often published divisive posts, many laced with slurs and stereotypes targeting each other's communities.
However, the pictures in the claim do not show children who were hospitalised after eating the local dish.
Fabricated claim
AFP Fact Check found no recent news reports of food poisoning involving three children in Nigeria.
We used Google Lens to conduct reverse image searches on the pictures in the X post. The earliest result led to a YouTube Short uploaded on August 1, 2025 (archived here).
In the full three-minute video, published by a YouTube account belonging to a user named Adejoke Adekoya, three children are seen being served a local delicacy by someone they refer to as 'Mom'.
In the video, we hear a woman interacting with the three children while dishing out okro soup with amala into bowls.
A review of the YouTube account shows the woman in the video shares scenes from her family's life.
In an Instagram chat message, Adekoya told AFP Fact Check that the claim is false.
'Kindly disregard the post shared by the individual. He purposely used the post to promote his disgusting tribalistic agenda because nothing of the sort happened,' she said. 'My kids ate the food, and they were all ok with it after tasting it. And I've already reached out to him to take it down.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Euronews
2 days ago
- Euronews
US has 'no plans' to recognise Palestinian statehood, Vance says
US Vice President JD Vance said on Friday that Washington has "no plans" to recognise a Palestinian as he met UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy in Kent. Taking questions from reporters before their talks, Vance addressed the UK decision to recognise Palestinian statehood in September unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza, saying he wasn't sure what such recognition would even mean, "given the lack of a functional government there." "If it was easy to bring peace to that region of the world, it would have been done already," he said. The meeting comes amid debates between Washington and London about the best way to end the wars between Russia and Ukraine, as well as Israel and Hamas. It's also taking place as the UK tries to come to favourable terms for steel and aluminium exports to the US and the two sides work out details of a broader trade deal announced at the end of June. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that he hoped to meet with US President Donald Trump next week, comments that came a day before Trump's deadline for Moscow to show progress in ending the three-year war in Ukraine. While Trump has focused on bilateral talks with Putin, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and other European leaders have stressed that Ukraine must be part of any negotiations on ending the war. The US and Britain, which have historically close ties known as "the special relationship," have also disagreed on their approach to ending the war in Gaza. Vance and Lammy come from opposite ends of the political spectrum, but have made a personal connection through their hardscrabble childhoods and Christian faith. While Lammy is a member of the left-leaning Labour Party and Vance is a conservative Republican who supports Trump's "America First" agenda, the two men have bonded in recent months. Lammy told the Guardian newspaper that the two men can relate over their "dysfunctional" working class childhoods and that he considers Vance a "friend." Lammy attended a Catholic Mass at the Vance home in Washington earlier this year and the two men met again at the US Embassy in Rome when he and Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner attended the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV in May. "I had this great sense that JD completely relates to me and he completely relates to Angela," Lammy told the Guardian newspaper. "So it was a wonderful hour and a half." Asked whether Trump had been given a heads up on Israel's announced intention to occupy Gaza City, Vance said he wouldn't go into such conversations.
AFP
2 days ago
- AFP
Image of man lying outside South African hospital fuels anti-migrant narratives
'A Zimbabwean man dies after he was dragged out of hospital by South African Dudula gangsters, here in the photo his wife stands confused and shocked all because of bad governance in Zimbabwe (sic),' reads an X post published on August 2, 2025. Operation Dudula is a movement that promotes the deportation of undocumented migrants (archived here). The X post, with over 2,000 likes, features a photo of a man lying on the ground outside a metal gate, with a young woman standing above him. Image Screenshot of the false post, published on August 2, 2025 Comments to the X post were mixed, with some replies asking why the man hadn't gone to a private hospital and others criticising the poster for using an old photo to spread propaganda. Image Screenshot of some of the replies to the X post, taken on August 7, 2025 Similar claims have circulated on Facebook and YouTube. However, the image shows an incident earlier in the year, unrelated to the ongoing disputes about foreigners in South Africa. January reports A reverse image search of the photo led to Afrikaans online articles from January 2025 by regional radio station OFM and the paywalled newspaper Netwerk24 (archived here). According to the news reports and the original Facebook post describing the incident, the photo was taken when the post's author, Vuyo Majuba, 'came across a deeply disturbing scene' at MUCPP Mangaung Community Health Centre in Bloemfontein, Free State province (archived here). 'An elderly, sick man was lying outside the clinic gates with his children by his side, visibly helpless,' read the post published on January 2, 2025. The post added that the gates were locked, and security told him the clinic only assists 'women giving birth'. At the time, the Free State Department of Health responded to the backlash from concerned citizens (archived here). 'Last night, Thursday, 02 January 2025, it transpired that a patient was taken to MUCPP after 21:00 and their pictures were spread on social media when they could not get help because the clinic is closed at that time for casualty services,' said the provincial government. The health department added: 'The ambulance services were contacted to check the situation but did not find this person because they had been taken to Pelonomi Hospital'. The provincial health spokesperson told AFP Fact Check on August 6, 2025, that they are aware that the 'picture has suddenly resurfaced as an apparent new issue'. 'We can confirm that this is used for misinformation purposes," Mondli Mvambi wrote in a WhatsApp message. Mvambi also confirmed that the man was reportedly South African, not Zimbabwean. 'We checked MUCPP that night to see what had transpired after our EMS had been sent to MUCPP, only to be told that this South African patient had been taken by car to Pelonomi," he said. The health department could not locate the patient after that night: 'We checked Pelonomi and there was never any confirmation of a patient with such a description.' Healthcare dispute In recent years, groups including Operation Dudula as well as March and March have been blocking undocumented foreigners from accessing public healthcare in South Africa's Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces (archived here and here). The groups advocate for the deportation of undocumented foreigners from South Africa, claiming they are straining the country's resources. The South African Human Rights Commission condemned these actions as unconstitutional (archived here), and the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (SERI) launched a case in the Gauteng High Court in 2024. The case was heard in June, but the court reserved judgment, meaning that a written decision will be handed down at a later date (archived here).
AFP
2 days ago
- AFP
Old video does not show Tigray politician declaring new war against Ethiopian government
The text accompanying the post, written in Amharic, reads: 'Message from Tigray to the Amhara people: A call to unite and stand together against the tyrannical regime. Dr. Debretsion has urged for an alliance, emphasising that 'it is impossible to bring the people of the North to their knees' (sic).' 'North' in this context refers to Ethiopia's Amhara and Tigray regions. Image Screenshot of the false post, taken on August 7, 2025 The post's text further claims Debretsion said: 'Starting today, we have completed our preparations to launch a joint operation together with our Eritrean and Tigrayan brothers against the oppressive regime, in a coordinated effort to establish a government of the people.' 'Oppressive regime' in this case means the government of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. The post was published on Facebook on July 31, 2025, and has been shared more than 120 times. The post also includes a video in which Debretsion speaks about Tigray's armed forces. 'The Tigray forces emerged in response to a tyrannical regime,' he says, adding: 'They were established not out of false narratives or for financial gain, but to resist the tragic oppression and systemic suppression faced by the Tigrayan people.' Fragile peace deal Ethiopia is currently grappling with ongoing conflicts in its two most populous regions: Oromia and Amhara (archived here). The Tigray region endured a brutal civil war between 2020 and 2022, in which Ethiopian federal forces — backed by the Eritrean military and local militias — fought against the Tigray People's Liberation Front (archived here). The conflict resulted in the deaths of an estimated 600,000 people, with all sides accused of committing atrocities. Although a peace agreement was signed in Pretoria, South Africa, in November 2022, its implementation remains incomplete. Debretsion, the former Tigray regional government leader, was sacked in April 2025 following disagreement between rival Tigray factions, which threatened the peace deal (archived here). Relations between longtime foes Ethiopia and Eritrea have also deteriorated, despite their alliance during the Tigray conflict. Animosities resurfaced in October 2023 following Abiy's renewed push for access to the Red Sea. Both governments have since accused each other of preparing for war (archived here). However, the video does not show Debretsion announcing a renewed alliance to wage war against the Ethiopian government. Old video AFP Fact Check used the video verification tool InVID-WeVerify to conduct reverse image searches on keyframes from the video of Debretsion speaking. The results revealed that a longer version of the video was originally published more than three years ago, in October 2021 (archived here). The original video, published on the official YouTube page of state-owned broadcaster Tigrai TV, is over nine minutes long and titled in Amharic: 'Dr. Debretsion Gebremichael Press Conference on Current Affairs.' In the original video, Debretsion begins by stating: 'In this press conference, I want to clarify that the war in the Afar and Amhara regions is coming to an end.' He goes on to describe how Tigrayan forces had engaged in intense battles with federal forces across multiple locations in both regions. During the speech, he refers to Abiy's administration as a 'fascist regime'. At the time -- in early October 2021 -- Tigrayan forces had pushed into the neighbouring Amhara and Afar regions and temporarily captured key towns (archived here). The false Facebook clip is taken from the original video, specifically from the 1'43'-3'03' mark. Image Screenshots of the original video (left) and the false clip, taken on August 8, 2025 At no point — either in the original video or in the false clip circulating on Facebook — did Debretsion call on forces in Amhara and Tigray to ally against the federal regime, nor did he announce a new war involving Eritrean forces.
