By: Umme Kulsum
September 4 2023
2013 video of Burkina Faso Minister collapsing shared as Gabon President Ali Bongo
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Fact-Check
The Verdict False
The man in the video is Burkina Faso's Foreign Minister, Djibrill Bassole, not Ali Bongo.
Claim ID a5d19cb1
What’s the claim?
A presidential election was held in Gabon in August 2023. The central African country saw significant delays in the voting process and the declaration of results, fueling claims of vote rigging by the opposition. The Gabonese Election Centre (CGE) declared the official results on August 30, 2023, saying President Ali Bongo had won the election. Following this, a group of senior military officers announced a coup in Gabon and canceled the election results.
Amid this, a video of a man falling off a podium during a speech has been going viral across social media platforms, including TikTok. The viral video features overlaid text that reads, "President of Gabon Ali Bongo fell as he was giving his speech at the Ku summit." An X (formerly Twitter) post with nearly 5,000 views shared the footage with the caption, “Learn to leave the stage when the ovation is loud,” and the viral hashtag #Gabon. The same video also went viral on TikTok, garnering 5 million views and around 68,000 likes thus far.
(Source: TikTok/@generationmedia24. Altered by Logically Facts)
However, contrary to the viral post, the person seen falling from the podium is not Gabon President Ali Bongo, and the clip is at least ten years old.
What are the facts?
After a reverse image search, Logically Facts found the exact video on YouTube uploaded by AFP on May 10, 2013, titled, “Burkina Faso foreign minister collapses in Turkey.” The video description states that Burkina Faso Foreign Minister Djibrill Bassole fell off the platform during a live press conference with Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu in Ankara on May 9, 2013, while Davutoglu responded to a journalist's inquiry.
The same video was also uploaded by Euro News, dated May 10, 2013, with the description, “Burkina Faso's foreign minister has fainted during a joint press conference in Turkey.” According to a report by the Washington Post, Bassole was at that time, suffering from "influenza and fatigue."
Comparison of AFP news coverage and the viral video
(Source: AFP YouTube, X/@victoria_anzaku)
The video was also viral during Gabon's presidential election campaigns in late July 2023 and early August 2023, with many people sharing the video and questioning Ali Bongo's potential.
The coup in Gabon comes a month after the military in Niger announced a coup and ousted President Mohamed Bazoum. According to Reuters, if the coup in Gabon succeeds, it will be the ninth military coup in West and Central Africa in the past three years. Western powers have condemned the coup in Gabon, a France 24 report stated.
The verdict
A 2013 video of Burkina Faso's minister Djibrill Bassole collapsing on stage during a press conference in Turkey has been falsely linked to the President of Gabon, Ali Bongo.