IN SHORT: Some social media users claim that a viral photo shows a farmer killed by Fulani herders in Nigeria’s Enugu state in April 2025. But there is no evidence to support this claim and the photo has been online since November.
A photo of a man lying on the ground with a bucket of yams next to him is circulating on social media in Nigeria in April 2025.
Users claim that it shows a farmer killed by Fulani herders in Enugu state in the southeast of the country.
One post reads: “This is getting out of hand to be honest, how can you as a Fulani go to someone’s land take his food and kill him in the process? This happened at enugu state.”
The same claim and photo appear here, here and here.
But is it true? We checked.
The background
The Fulani are a widely dispersed group of mainly cattle herders scattered across West Africa.
In Nigeria, Fulani have been accused of attacking communities, kidnapping, robbery and murder. But some Fulani communities, in turn, accuse the media of stereotyping them.
The southeast of Nigeria is inhabited mainly by the Igbo, one of the country’s largest ethnic groups.
Nigeria has seen decades of clashes between Fulani herders and local farmers, mainly over land and resources.
Old image
An online search of keywords from the claim brought up no reports on Fulani herders killing a farmer in April 2025. This is a sign that the claim might be false.
We also found no official statements relating to this claim on the Nigerian police’s social media accounts and website.
A Google reverse image research revealed that the photo had been online since at least November 2024. A post on Nairaland, a Nigerian discussion forum, said the photo was taken after armed herders attacked the Mgbuji community in Enugu. It was also posted on social media platforms, including X and Facebook, around the same time and with similar claims.
This does not prove exactly when and where it was taken. However, it does prove that the photo is not from an April 2025 incident in Enugu state, as the posts suggest.
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