In late July, Niger's pro-Western president Mohamed Bazoum was deposed in a military coup. The self-proclaimed ruler who took over, General Abdourahmane "Omar" Tchiani, declared he would not accept any foreign interference after the West African confederation ECOWAS had threatened to intervene militarily.

European citizens are being evacuated from the country. As the security situation in Niger remains unclear, many social media users are posting videos and information about the coup and its consequences in the country. DW's fact-checking team followed up on three of the most viral claims.

Does this video show Niger’s army training?

Claim: "A strange picture of the training of the Niger army to deal with the coup plotters!" claimed one Twitter useras they shared a video that was viewed over 200,000 times. The footage shows dozens of people in uniform practising a fight sequence.

DW fact check: False

Our research showed that the video does not depict the Nigerien armed forces. Instead, it is an old video of the Nigerian Youth Service Corps (NYSC). The one-year program from Nigeria, not Niger, is designed for college and university graduates "to inculcate discipline in Nigerian youths by instilling in them a tradition of industry at work, and of patriotic and loyal service to Nigeria in any situation they may find themselves." Here's how we found out: We used online research tools, and discovered the same video posted on Facebook (archived here) on July 7, 2022. It came...

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