Claim: Viral video shows Cameroonians attacking the family home of footballer Breel Embolo after his goal for Switzerland against Cameroon in the 2022 World Cup.
Verdict: False! The circulation video shows some Cameroonians protesting against the country’s electricity company at Bertoua.
Full Text
The Fifa World Cup is undoubtedly one of the most eventful activities on the global sporting calendar. As expected, it draws a lot of emotions not just from the footballers but from the millions of fans in the countries they represent.
One of the topical issues in this and more recent World Cup competitions is the prevalence of footballers of African descent representing western countries.
Breel Donald Embolo, a Cameroonian-born footballer playing for Switzerland, is one of the many who fall into that bracket.
On Thursday, November 24, 2022, Cameroon played Switzerland in their 2022 World Cup opening game which ended 1-0 in favour of Switzerland.
Embolo scored Switzerland’s only goal in that match against the country of his birth, Cameroon.
Supersport.com reported that he refused to celebrate the goal as a sign of respect to Cameroon.
Following the game, rumours were rife that Embolo’s family home in Cameroon had been vandalised.
A video of the supposed vandalism also went viral on various social media platforms, including Twitter.
For instance, one of the publications, made by Twitter user @fante_soil, has been watched more than 58,000 times and reacted to by hundreds of people.
Verification
Using the InVid verification tool, keyframes from the video were subjected to different reverse image searches. The results pointed to a public protest at Bertoua, the eastern regional capital of Cameroon.
The protest occurred the same day the Cameroon-Switzerland game was played, according to the online publication Actualités de L’EST.
The outlet published the video on Facebook with the caption: “#Bertoua: Le siège d’ENEO attaqué par les populations furieuses du délestage en cette période marquée par la Coupe du Monde de Football au Qatar.” which Google translates as: “#Bertoua: ENEO headquarters attacked by angry blackout populations in this period marked by the World Cup in Qatar.”
ENEO is Cameroon’s major electricity supply company. Further analysis of the video showed an Eneo-branded table in front of the building where the protest occurred.
Again, the protest was being carried out in front of the building draped in Eneo’s colours; Green and Blue.
Many different online publications like this and this confirmed that Eneo and the people of Bertoua have long had a sour relationship over the supply of electricity.
Also, in the first two seconds of the contentious video, one of the protestors is heard chanting “on veut la lumière,” which loosely translates as “we want light,” buttressing the point that the protest had to do with electricity.
Conclusion
Based on the above information, it is confirmed that the viral video used to make the rumour that Cameroon-born Switzerland player Breel Embolo had his family home in Cameroon vandalised after his goal against his home country in the 2022 World Cup is false.
