A video is circulating on Facebook showing several men in camouflage clothing executing civilians, namely women and children. The description suggests that they are Angolan soldiers, more precisely with the reference to executions carried out at the behest of an alleged “communist dictator of Angola”.

Contrary to what is said in the publication, there are several indications that the images were not captured in Angola, but in Cameroon, and after the investigations seven soldiers responsible for these events were arrested.

The video in question is not new, it began to circulate on July 10, 2018 and there is various evidence that disproves the thesis that it was an attack on Angolan territory, starting with the language used in the video. Subsequently, it was possible to collect more data that disproves the alleged relationship of the images with events that occurred in Angolan territory, either through independent investigations or by decision of the Cameroonian justice system.

Let’s go by parts: first, the dialogue that can be heard in the video, according to AFP, reveals that the people were executed for belonging to Boko Haram, an Islamic extremist group that operated in several countries, including Cameroon.

Among the videos released, there is one in which one of the soldiers can be heard shouting, in French, “Mixe-te BH, you are going to die.” This reference refers to the aforementioned terrorist group, and shows that the military spoke French —the official language of Cameroon— which is not the case in Angola, where the mother tongue is Portuguese.

Before the investigations concluded, the country’s government was one of the first to react, assuring that the news that was being released was “false” and subject to “terrible manipulation.” However, denials quickly emerged, even with the country’s own security sources warning of the possibility that these images had been captured in the northern region of the country.

On the other hand, an investigation by Amnesty International reported that, through the dialogues, the weapons visible in the video and the clothing used, it is possible to perceive that the soldiers in question are from Cameroon – which, once again, goes against the theory that these events took place in Angola.

Shortly after, the Cameroonian government itself announced that, within the framework of the investigations into the case, seven soldiers had been arrested. After this confirmation, the Executive reported that there is a will to “systematically investigate the atrocities that some lost soldiers may have committed and, where appropriate, apply the corresponding sanctions.”

conclusion

There is ample evidence that the soldiers present in the video and responsible for the execution of civilians are not Angolans, as suggested in the Facebook post. In addition to the fact that Amnesty International made public that the weapons, clothing and dialogues were sent to Cameroon, the country’s own government, after denying it, ended up confirming the information, which led to the arrest of seven people. In this way, it can be proven that the statement of the publication in question is false, given that the military are from Cameroon and not from Angola.

Thus, according to the Observer classification system, this content is:

WRONG

In the Facebook classification system this content is:

FAKE: the main content claims are factually inaccurate. This option typically matches “false” or “mostly false” ratings on fact-checking websites.

NOTE: This content was curated by The Observer as part of a fact-checking partnership with Facebook.