FALSE: This video is not of a fight between businessmen and thugs in Mogadishu
The video is of a businessman in Mombasa protecting his premises from protestors.
This post on X (formerly Twitter) with a video claiming to show a fight broke out in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu between Somali businessmen and thugs is FALSE.
The video depicts a man dressed in a blue tunic holding a gun while people hurl stones at him.
The text accompanying the video reads: “Fight broke out between Somali businessmen and Faqash thugs in Mogadishu, Somalia. As you can see, a brave businessman came out with a pistol to defend his property and business. Unfortunately, people were calling him “security threats”. Few minutes after he went inside the building, these Faqash thugs burned down parked vehicles owned by businessmen. Unfortunately, there was no policeman to stop these civil disobedience, violence, chaos, and robberies. How could they let this happen in the capital city of Somalia?”
Federation of Somali Journalists (FESOJ) performed a Google reverse image search on the video’s keyframes, which led us to this, this and this, all reporting that it was filmed in Mombasa, Kenya.
The footage shows a Mombasa businessman firing shots at protestors to prevent them from vandalizing his premises.
We also conducted further investigation, which revealed that the vehicle seen in the video displays Kenyan number plates, and people in the background can be heard speaking Swahili.
The incident occurred during Kenya’s nationwide protests against the tax hike which began in June, 2024.
Federation of Somali Journalists (FESOJ) looked into a post on X (formerly Twitter) with a video claiming to show a fight broke out in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu between Somali businessmen and thugs and found it to be FALSE.
This fact-check was produced by Federation of Somali Journalists (FESOJ) under the African Fact-Checking Incubator programme, with support from PesaCheck, Code for Africa’s fact-checking initiative, and the African Fact-Checking Alliance(AFCA).
