US president Donald Trump did not say he would grant Biafra independence from Nigeria - ignore AI-generated video
IN SHORT: A video of US president Donald Trump saying he will liberate Biafra from Nigeria is circulating on social media. But Trump never made such a statement; the video was generated using artificial intelligence tools.
A Facebook post, dated 18 February 2025, reads: "The Current President of the United States Donald Trump, has now decided to look into the Biafra in Nigeria so they can be independent."
Donald Trump first served as president of the US from 2017 to 2021. He started serving his second term on 20 January 2025.
The post features a video of Trump, who can be heard saying: "After I finish with the Ukraine war with Russia, I will turn to Nigeria to liberate the Igbo people of Biafra. These people have suffered in the hands of the northern Muslim-dominated folks, continue reaping the natural resources of southern Nigeria, mainly the people of United States of Biafra. Nnamdi Kanu, the Biafra leader, should be released immediately."
Biafra is a region in southeastern Nigeria that declared independence from the rest of the country in 1967. This led to the Nigerian civil war, which lasted from 1967 to 1970. The war ended with Nigeria defeating the secessionists.
There are continued calls for Biafran independence, most notably by the Indigenous People of Biafra, or Ipob. The group has also used disinformation as a tool on social media to spread its message. Ipob leader Nnamdi Kanu was arrested in 2021. His trial is ongoing in Nigeria.
The same video was found here and here. (Note: See more instances at the end of this report.)
But is the video legit? We checked.
Ignore AI-generated video
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Africa Check broke the video into frames and ran them through Google reverse image search.
The search led us to the original video on the BBC's website on 14 January 2021. In it, Trump told his supporters to be peaceful in the aftermath of the US Capitol riots. On 6 January a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol building in Washington DC as lawmakers were certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election. Trump lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.
Although we found several videos of Trump wearing the same clothes, the BBC video is the closest to the one circulating on Facebook. Both videos also show the same portraits in the background, arranged in the same way.
The Facebook video is overlaid with the text "ElonTalks.com" at the top-right corner. Elon Talks is a website that uses artificial intelligence to generate realistic voices of celebrities.
The website has video templates for several celebrities. One of the video templates of Trump matches the one on the BBC website. All the user has to do is add the script to the video template, and a video is generated with Trump appearing to say those words.
The video of Trump talking about Biafra and its leader is fake and should be ignored.
The same video was posted here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
