A post shared on Facebook over 140 times purportedly shows a Nigerian protest at the White House on July 2.

Verdict: False

There is no record of a large protest occurring outside the White House on July 2. The images show Nigerian protesters in Vatican City.

Fact Check:

The two images depict a crowd of people with red, black and green flags congregating outside a white building with columns. “Happening now! At the White House right now in the USA ! Biafrans protest in thousands.,” the July 2 Facebook post reads. (RELATED: Image Claims Pope Francis Made A Satanic Hand Gesture)

There is no evidence that these photos were taken in front of the White House. Protests near the White House are typically covered by media outlets, such as when nearly a thousand protesters gathered in Black Lives Matter Plaza in November 2020. An internet search of protesters outside the White House on July 2 turned up no news reports.

The images appear to show Nigerians protesting in Vatican City. The columns of the structure in the Facebook image seemingly match those from St. Peter’s Basilica. Through reverse image searches, Check Your Fact found the source of the photos to be a video posted on YouTube in 2019. The video shows the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) at the Vatican, according to its title. IPOB is a Nigerian separatist group that wants to break away from Nigeria and establish its own country, according to BBC News.

Many IPOB supporters rallied in front of the Vatican in February 2016 where Pope Francis greeted them, according to Newsweek. A video posted on YouTube in February 2016 by NNTV-Africa shows footage of the IPOB supporters in the Vatican and shares similarities to the images shared on Facebook.