POSTS ON SOCIAL media have shared a number of images alongside claims that the president of the Ivory Coast has recently been overthrown in a coup.

However, the claim is false: no coup has taken place in the Ivory Coast, and the posts feature images of different events, one of which is from a different country.

One such post, shared by an account on Facebook with 65,000 followers on 22 May, contains three images.

One image shows a large crowd at a demonstration, while another shows a building on fire. A third image is of the former president of the west African nation, Henri Konan Bédié, who died in 2023.

The images are overlaid with the text: “Ivory coast Coup 19/5/2025″

The accompanying post states: “BREAKING NEWS There are several reports online about the overthrow of Alassane Ouattara, the President of Ivory Coast, in a coup. MORE UPDATES WILL BE POSTED HERE”

The Facebook post matches similar posts on the social media platform X, which also claim a coup took place in the Ivory Coast.

Other posts on Facebook also shared videos on 21 May incorrectly claiming that a coup was taking place in Ivory coast.

A coup, also known as a coup d’état, is typically used to describe a situation when a country’s military illegally attempts to overthrow its leader. However, there have been no credible reports of any such coup taking place in the Ivory Coast.

False post

The Ivory Coast’s current president is Alassane Ouattara. He has appeared at numerous events (including the African Development Bank annual meetings on 27 May) and posted regularly on X since 21 May, when the coup is alleged to have taken place.

As well as this, the National Agency for Information Systems Security of Côte d’Ivoire (ANSSI) also denied any coup had taken place, giving a statement to the local online publication abidjan.net. 

“Publications currently circulating on the X network claim that a coup d’état has taken place in Côte d’Ivoire,” the agency stated.

This claim is completely unfounded. It is the result of a deliberate and coordinated disinformation campaign.

As first reported by Fullfact.org, the images shared do not show any coup. The image of the building on fire is of a blaze in a shopping centre in Abidjan in February. The image of a crowd marching is from protests held in Nairobi in Kenya in July 2024.

It is clear from the above, that no coup has taken place in the Ivory Coast and that the Facebook post contains false information.

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