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Two images from the Nigeria massacre that took place in St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Nigeria, in June 2022 have recently been falsely circulating the online platforms as "new photos" from the country's Christmas 2023 attack.
On December 24, 2022, there were alleged farmer-herder riots in Plateau, Nigeria, which resulted in over 100 fatalities and 300 injuries. The pictures currently making the rounds depict the fallout from that incident. However, it is falsely claimed that the Nigeria massacre pictures are from the 2023 attack. The viral Facebook and X post claim:
"Nigeria - New photos from within a church where at Christmas Christians were massacred in the name of Allah. Around 150 are confirmed dead so far, properties & farms were looted and burned. This is on par with what Hamas did, but the MSM & dancing Western Hamas fans ignore."
The real Nigeria massacre images, according to India Today, were taken from an Al Jazeera story published on June 6, 2022, which included the image of the church that had been looted. At least 50 people were killed when gunmen carrying explosives broke into the church in Owo, a town in Ondo State, Nigeria.
The images of the Nigeria massacre do not show the 2023 incident but an incident that happened in 2022
On December 24, 2023, more than a hundred Nigerian Christians died as a result of a massacre. Amnesty International reports that on December 24, armed bandits went berserk in about 20 communities in central Nigeria, killing over 140 people.
On social media, two images that appear to be from the recent Nigeria massacre, one of which shows a blood-stained floor and the other of which was probably taken inside a church, are spreading. These are allegedly from the 2023 attack in Nigeria. However, the truth is the event from which these pictures are taken happened in 2022.
The description for the earlier pictures that are now circulating online said that they were taken inside a church where Christians were killed on Christmas Day 2023. The photos were shared on Facebook and X.
The Nigeria massacre images, however, depict the fallout from an attack on the St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo, Nigeria, on June 5, 2022. India Today said that the Associated Press used these photos in an online piece that same day.
In addition, Reuters provided in-depth coverage of the 2022 church attack, claiming that the violence occurred during a liturgy celebrating the Christian feast of Pentecost, leaving dozens of people dead or injured.
On the other hand, that same day's ABC News broadcast had an identical image. Rahaman A. Yusuf, an Associated Press photographer, was given credit for the image.
Yusuf took these pictures inside the St. Francis Catholic Church on June 5, 2022, following the gunmen's opening fire and detonator explosions on a Sunday morning as worshippers were gathering for weekly prayer.
Furthermore, according to India Today, they were unable to locate any reliable information on the recent attack on a church in Nigeria.
It is safe to say that the photos associated with the most recent incident in Nigeria are not from Christmas 2023, but from June 2022.
