Posts falsely claim man crying in viral video is Niger’s finance minister

The July coup in Niger is fuelling disinformation in neighbouring Nigeria. Several accounts on social media recently claimed that a video they shared showed the Nigerien finance minister crying after coup leaders gave him an ultimatum to account for stolen funds or face certain death. But the claim is false: the clip, which was taken in 2021, shows former justice minister Marou Amadou and is unrelated to the coup.

“EVERY DAY FOR THE THIEF…Below is the Finance minister of Niger Republic, having been told by the new military Junta to account for all the stolen money of the country in the next 48 hrs or face execution by firing squad (sic),” reads a post published on Twitter, which is being rebranded as ‘X’, on July 28, 2023.

A screenshot of the false tweet, taken on July 31, 2023

Shared more than 4,400 times, the post features a video of a crying man sitting behind a microphone, dressed in a lilac-coloured traditional babanriga and wearing a green scarf around his neck.

The same claim was also shared by several accounts on X (including here, here and here), Facebook (here and here), and WhatsApp.

A screenshot of the false message on WhatsApp, taken on July 31, 2023

American professor of applied economics Steve Hanke (archived here) also shared the claim (archived here).

Niger coup

A group of soldiers detained and deposed Niger’s democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, on July 26, 2023.

General Abdourahamane Tiani, the chief of the presidential guard who led the putschists, declared himself the new leader of the jihadist-hit African nation three days later.

An army colonel, Amadou Abdramane, said in a televised address that “all institutions” in the country would be suspended, borders closed and a curfew imposed (archived here).

The junta had said in a statement that “all former ministers and heads of institutions” were required to hand back their official cars by noon on July 31, 2023.

Niger’s ruling Party for Democracy and Socialism (PNDS) said that the military junta had arrested at least four ministers that served under Bazoum (archived here).

But the claim the video shows the country’s finance minister crying after being given an ultimatum to account for missing funds is false.

Old video

AFP Fact Check traced the video in the false claims to a Nigerien TikTok account called “djiboamadou22”. The name appears in the top left corner of the clip.

The account published the footage on July 27, 2023, without any caption (archived here).

However, using the InVID-WeVerify video verification tool, we found that the footage had been online since December 2021.

A Facebook account called “L’oeil Nigerien” published the clip on December 27, 2021 (archived here) and said the video showed Niger’s former justice minister, Marou Amadou, tearfully thanking the country’s former president, Issoufou Mahamadou, for “giving him everything”.

Amadou served as justice minister under Mahamadou between April 2011 and April 2021 (archived here).

Another Facebook account of a Nigerien news outlet Company M.K.L published a photo showing Amadou wearing the same clothes and scarf seen in the video on December 28, 2021 (archived here).

Translated from French, the caption explained that it showed Amadou and three other men at the launch of the Centre for Studies and Research On Climate and Human Security in Africa (CERCASH) set up to research the impact of climate change in Africa.

According to the post, Amadou had been appointed as the Nigerien ambassador to Ethiopia. At the time the photo was taken, he was no longer the justice minister.

A video published on YouTube on December 28, 2021, by a local broadcaster showed Amadou at the launch of the “new think-tank” (archived here).

A report published on December 3, 2021, by a Nigerien news website showed that apart from being appointed as ambassador to Ethiopia, Amadou was also to serve as Niger’s representative to the African Union (AU) and the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) (archived here).

Ahmat Jidoud

A keyword search for “Niger’s finance minister” led to a short biography of Ahmat Jidoud published on the World Bank’s website (archived here).

The biography explained that Jidoud, a former economist with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), was appointed Niger’s finance minister on April 7, 2021, days after Bazoum was sworn in as president (archived here).

The post on the World Bank website included a link to Jidoud’s account on X.

His bio on the social media platform shows he was Niger’s finance minister until the coup on July 26, 2023 (archived here).