Fact-check: Was this video taken in Apaa, Northern Uganda?

No, this video originated in Nigeria and has been online since late December 2023. As much as there are conflicts in the Apaa area due to land disputes and reported killings, this particular video wasn’t recorded there. 

Writer: Jibi Moses

A video making the rounds on a WhatsApp group claiming to be from Appa, northern Uganda, is misleading.

The video, which was shared on February 26, 2024, in a WhatsApp group, claims that the incident happened in Apaa on that specific day in the afternoon.

The message caption partly reads, “THE QUESTION OF APAA LAND DISPUTE IN AMURU DISTRICT BETWEEN MADI AND ACHOLI COMMUNITIES INTENSIFIES THIS AFTERNOON.”

A screenshot from the part of the video.

The video caused suspicion since the language used did not sound like Madi or Acholi, the native languages of the two communities in dispute. Despite that, no mainstream media has reported or written about the video.

This made 211 Check take a deeper dive to investigate it.

Claim Verification:

A Google search by 211 Check after cropping some parts of the video shows results of an unrelated incident that happened earlier and in a different location.

The first Google search result brought up this video posted by ALIVEGORE with the caption, “Child Warning! Islamist Militants Killed 198 Christians In 15 Villages. Nigeria.”

Screenshot of an image from the Counting Stars article.

Similarly, CountingStars is an online newspaper that describes itself as a personal blog created in 2004 and published in Spain. On December 26, 2023, a story with the headline The images of the brutal Islamist massacres against Christians in Nigeria on Christmas Eve. 

The article deeply explains an alleged act of rudeness that happened in Nigeria on Christmas Eve of 2023. They screenshotted multiple scenes in the video and posted them with the article as pictures.

An article published by the Counting Stars on December 26, 2023.

The Madi-Acholi Apaa conflict

The Apaa land wrangles between the Madi of Adjumani district and Acholi of Amuru, both northern districts of Uganda, started to appear as early as 2006. The Apaa land became contentious when the government in 2017 demarcated boundaries between Amuru and Adjumani districts. Apaa village was placed under Adjumani, to the dismay of the Acholi people from Amuru, with whom they have inhabited the land for decades. Since then, the attacks have been recurring, as the Madi community wants the Acholi people pushed out of the land.

The Apaa issue has been in the news ever since, as seen in some of these articles here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, among others.

A keyword search: “Has there been a massacre in Apaa Northern in February?” on Google brought several media results, with the latest being an article by Plus News, in which they reported that an Alebtong police officer wanted to kill a person in Apaa. This incident happened on February 22. There are other incidences of killing, as reported here, here, and here.

Conclusion:

211 Check has found that a video making the rounds on WhatsApp didn’t originate from Apaa, northern Uganda, but from Nigeria. Evidence shows that the video has been online since late December 2023. Much as there are land conflicts in the Apaa region between the Acholi and Madi and some reported cases of killings, this particular one isn’t from there. 

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