FACT CHECK: Did a Nigerian Helicopter Crash Near the Burkina Faso Border, As Claimed by Rightsource TV?

By Daniel Otera

A viral video published by a Facebook page named Rightsource TV claims that a helicopter flying from Nigeria to the Burkina Faso border was brought down while allegedly transporting weapons and ammunition to terrorists.

The speaker whose identity is unknown accuses Nigeria, Benin Republic, and Côte d’Ivoire of plotting to destabilise Burkina Faso and remove its junta leader, Captain Ibrahim Traoré.

The claim in part: “Imagine, for two years, Ibrahim Traoré has been trying to stabilize the economy of Burkina Faso, and now Nigeria is trying its best to encourage terrorism on the border so they can get into Burkina Faso and destabilize what Ibrahim Traoré has struggled to build during his time in power.”

Grassroots Check subjected the video and its claims to rigorous verification.
The video, posted without date, location, or source, features a woman’s voice-over narration layered on generic visuals.

There is no footage of a downed helicopter, no images of confiscated weapons, and no documentation to support the claims. Grassroots Check ran reverse image searches of the key frames using InVID and Google Lens; none of the images were linked to any verified incident in Nigeria or Burkina Faso.

Moreover, a review of press statements, military briefings, and news reports from the Nigerian Ministry of Defence, the Nigerian Air Force, Burkina Faso’s armed forces, and reputable international media including BBC, AFP, Al Jazeera, and Reuters shows no record of any helicopter crash or arms seizure near the Nigeria–Burkina Faso border.

Grassroots Check also examined relevant data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED). From January 2022 to May 2025, Nigeria recorded more than 7,800 violent incidents and over 20,000 conflict-related deaths, primarily due to insurgency, terrorism, and banditry. Burkina Faso, under the leadership of Captain Traoré, also suffered over 5,000 fatalities in conflict-related events during the same period especially in its north and east. However, no data suggests Nigeria has ever been a supplier of arms to militants in Burkina Faso or elsewhere in the Sahel.

Instead, Grassroots Check finds that Nigeria remains a major victim of terrorism, not an exporter of it. It is a frontline member of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) a regional coalition that includes Chad, Niger, and Cameroon dedicated to combating Boko Haram and other armed groups in the Lake Chad Basin.

The video also claims that Nigeria is working with Benin and Côte d’Ivoire to remove Captain Traoré. Grassroots Check reviewed the official records of ECOWAS, the African Union, the United Nations, and Burkina Faso itself and found no such allegation has been made or substantiated by any regional or international authority. While tensions have risen following ECOWAS sanctions and the withdrawal of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger from the bloc, there is no indication that Nigeria is attempting regime change in Ouagadougou.

The Facebook page behind the claim Rightsource TV has previously published multiple misleading and unverifiable posts. According to Meta’s transparency data, the page was created in 2023 but does not disclose its administrators or editorial affiliation. Grassroots Check reviewed dozens of its previous posts and found a recurring pattern of disinformation: anti-Western rhetoric, conspiratorial accusations against ECOWAS and France, and unverified claims about military and foreign operations.

Grassroots Check further notes that Rightsource TV’s content structure relies heavily on dramatic voiceovers, emotionally charged narration, and unrelated video clips. No post reviewed by Grassroots Check contained verifiable footage, timestamps, or identifiable sources. Previous posts on the page have claimed without evidence that France rearmed Fulani militias, that NATO was sending troops into Niger, and that ECOWAS was planning to invade Mali. None of these claims has been corroborated by any independent investigation or international outlet.

The widespread sharing of this kind of content is part of a broader information warfare strategy that has escalated in the Sahel region since 2021. Following military coups in Mali (2021), Burkina Faso (2022), and Niger (2023), Grassroots Check finds that misinformation has flourished, often amplifying pro-junta narratives while casting democratic neighbours as enemies.

A 2024 report by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, cited by Grassroots Check, found that nearly 40% of disinformation campaigns targeting African audiences originated from Russian-linked networks operating in the Sahel. These campaigns thrive on social media platforms like Facebook, Telegram, and WhatsApp where anonymous pages such as Rightsource TV flourish without oversight.

The campaigns regularly blame Western countries, regional blocs, or foreign-trained militaries for instability, despite evidence pointing to homegrown insurgencies and governance failures.

France24’s fact-checking team The Observers similarly reported that fabricated military claims circulated widely in Niger after the 2023 coup, often driven by anonymous or pseudonymous social media pages. Many of these stories followed the same pattern: unverifiable voiceovers, misleading visuals, and provocative messaging meant to manipulate public sentiment.

Verdict: FALSE

Grassroots Check concludes that the claim of a Nigerian helicopter supplying arms to terrorists crashing near the Burkina Faso border is false.