No, photos of burnt vehicles depicting a retaliatory attack against Igbos in Kano are old and unrelated to Edo mob action
IN SHORT: A fatal attack on Hausa people in Edo state, Nigeria has triggered a wave of rumours of retaliatory attacks against local Igbos. But the photos used as evidence of these retaliations are old, and the police have denied such an attack took place in Kano state, as claimed on social media.
Social media users have posted photos of a burnt vehicle, with the claim they show the aftermath of an attack on Igbo travellers by Fulani men in Kano state, Nigeria.
One such post, published 29 March 2025, reads, in part: "Tragically, 18 Igbos lost their lives this morning while travelling back to the East. A violent Fulani mob ambushed their bus, set it ablaze, and left no survivors. Everything put Igbos on Target."
The Fulani ethnic group are found in the northern region of Nigeria, while the Igbo are primarily from the southeast.
On 27 March 2025 travellers, suspected to be kidnappers from northern Nigeria, were killed by a mob in Uromi in Edo state.
The victims were Hausa hunters who were travelling from Port Harcourt, in the south-south geopolitical zone, to Kano for Eid al-Fitr celebrations when they were intercepted by vigilantes in Edo.
Eid al-Fitr marks the end of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting.
Nigerian leaders and institutions have condemned the attack, urging for justice and peace.
It's in this context that the claim has surfaced about Fulani men burning a vehicle, killing Igbo passengers.
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The same claim can be found here and here. (Note: See more instances at the end of this report.)
But do the photos of burnt vehicles show the aftermath of an attack against Igbos? We checked.
Old photos
Africa Check ran a reverse photo search of the photos included as evidence of the claim and found one of them published by Punch newspaper in 2023. It was reported that the 14 passengers in the vehicle were unhurt when it was gutted by fire on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway.
We found another of the photos in a 2022 report about seven people burnt to death on the Sagamu-Benin expressway.
We found another one in a report from 2020 about nine people who were killed along the Benin-Ore expressway when a bus burst into flames.
We found another photo in a report from 2020 about a Boko Haram terrorist attack in Borno state, northeastern Nigeria, where 65 people were killed.
What we could not find were any credible news reports of an attack on a bus carrying Igbo passengers in March 2025. If the claim were real, it would have been reported by the media.
Abdullahi Kiyawa, Kano state police spokesperson, also told the media it was "fake news".
The claim is an example of misinformation that could incite violence and should be ignored.
The same claim was found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
