No, video does not show Nigerians leaving their country for 'greener pastures'
IN SHORT: A video circulating on Facebook shows a group of deportees arriving in Assamaka, Niger. The claim that it shows Nigerians leaving their country is false.
A video has been posted on Facebook with the claim it shows Nigerians leaving their country for "greener pastures".
The video shows a large group of people with luggage walking across a desert landscape.
One post, dated 18 June 2024, reads: "Jakpa: some men seen traveling through the desert for greener pasture."
"Jakpa" is presumably meant to be japa, a Yoruba word meaning to run or escape. It has become a common term for Nigerians who migrate in search of a better life.
Many Nigerians leave the country to escape the ailing economy, insecurity and to find better job opportunities.
Similar posts can be found here and here. (Note: See more instances listed at the end of the report.)
But does the video show Nigerians fleeing their country? We checked.
Old, unrelated video
Africa Check broke the video into frames and ran them through Google reverse image search.
The search led us to a longer version, posted in 2022 by Alarme Phone Sahara (APS), an organisation that aims to protect migrants in the Sahel-Saharan region and Europe.
The video is captioned: "Arrival of deportees in Assamaka on foot, 8th of March 2022."
Assamaka is a town in the northern Agadez region of Niger.
According to APS, a group of 810 deportees arrived in Assamaka that day: "The deportees were 328 nationals from Guinea Conakry, 274 from Mali, 43 from Burkina Faso, 45 from Ivory Coast, 26 from Benin, 21 from Sierra Leone, 20 from Nigeria, 16 from Senegal, 13 from the Gambia, 4 from Liberia, 3 from Togo, 3 from Ghana, 2 from Chad, one woman from Cameroon, one man from Sudan and one from Niger."
