Does a viral video show Eritrean migrants rioting in The Hague, Netherlands, in late October 2026?
Misleading
The video is genuine footage of the February 2024 Eritrean community riots at The Hague's Opera Zalencentrum, but the post presents it as current unrest in October 2026 — a claim two independent fact-checks have already debunked.
GenuineClaims
✓ 1 true · ✕ 1 falseEritrean migrants are wreaking havoc in The Hague and several cars have been set on fire.
A violent riot of exactly this kind did occur outside the Opera Zalencentrum on Fruitweg in The Hague, with police vehicles and a touring coach torched, officers pelted with stones and bricks, and dozens prosecuted. But it happened on 17 February 2024 — a clash between rival Eritrean groups (supporters and opponents of the Eritrean government) — not in October 2026. The claim is accurate for the past event but stripped of that context.
This footage shows war on the streets of The Hague now — 'Europe is burning before our eyes'.
The 24-second clip is the February 2024 Opera Zalencentrum riot footage, geolocated to Fruitweg 26 in The Hague. Spanish public broadcaster RTVE and the Arabic-language fact-checker Misbar both traced the identical video to 17 February 2024 and debunked its circulation as current unrest on 26-27 October 2026. No such riot occurred in The Hague in late October 2026.
The Hague is the city that hosts the ICC.
The International Criminal Court is headquartered in The Hague, as are the ICJ and Europol. This incidental detail checks out, but it is not the crux of the post.
The EU remains silent about this.
A rhetorical, unverifiable characterisation with no precise referent — and moot, since the events shown are from February 2024, when Dutch authorities and courts, not 'the EU', were the relevant responders.
What was posted
XDoes a viral video show Eritrean migrants rioting in The Hague, Netherlands, in late October 2026?
Who posted it
XAccount check
Estimates from public signals — account age, posting pattern, audience — not a judgement of the person behind the account, and separate from whether this post is true.
What stood out
- Account belongs to Mario Bojić, a real Serbian podcast host and media personality behind 'Mario ZNA'; he is a genuine individual, not a synthetic persona.
- Multiple outlets (RFE/RL, The Geopost, BGNES) describe him as a far-right influencer who spreads conspiracy theories and pro-Russian propaganda.
- Fact-checkers have repeatedly flagged his posts: Raskrinkavanje rated items as false news, conspiracy theory and fact manipulation (e.g. US election theft claim, Bosnia/Epstein trafficking claim, 'Operacija Evropa').
- Al Jazeera debunked a March 2026 post in which he claimed AI-generated footage showed Iranian missiles destroying Tel Aviv and said the footage was 'verified as genuine'; it reached over 18 million views.
- Lead Stories debunked an April 2026 post attributed to @MarioBojic claiming an impossible Hungarian poll (68% Orbán / 35% Magyar).
- hibrid.info documented 'MarioZNA' amplifying false claims blaming Albanians for crimes, content that then spread to Telegram and a Russian propaganda domain.
- He has appeared on RT and TASS, hosted RT contributor Chay Bowes, and RFE/RL reported suspicions he is part of a Kremlin-linked influencer network promoting Viktor Orbán.
- Profile metadata is sparse: no bio, follower count or creation date supplied; platform verification is false. Web evidence shows activity since at least 2021 and a large YouTube following (~130k).
- Assessment: a real but highly unreliable source — low authenticity as an information source, with low-to-moderate bot probability given his individual brand but documented participation in coordinated pro-Russian messaging networks.
Signals (8)+
- Platform verification
- No
- Posting cadence
- High; frequent viral political/geopolitical posts
- Follower ratio
- Unknown
- Notable news coverage
- RFE/RL, The Geopost, BGNES, KosovaPress, Gazeta Express
- Fact check history
- Multiple debunks by Raskrinkavanje, Al Jazeera, Lead Stories, hibrid.info
- Known affiliations
- Mario ZNA podcast/YouTube; appearances on RT and TASS; reported links to pro-Kremlin influencer networks
- Content patterns
- Pro-Russian narratives, conspiracy theories, anti-Western and anti-Albanian content, AI-generated or miscontextualised footage
- Bot likelihood
- Low individually, but coordinated amplification suspicion exists
Account checked October 29, 2026, 03:09 UTC
The media
VideoSynthetic-media detector
Detector ranThe claim stands or falls on whether the media is real, so the detector ran.
Scores are the detector’s estimate for the file as uploaded. A low score does not rule out editing, a spliced caption, or footage shown out of context — those are judged above. Model v3.
Sources
6 sources reviewed- 1Disturbios en Europa: vídeos antiguos y descontextualizados para alimentar la alarma social ↗
RTVE.es · rtve.esReputable outletCenter/Lean Left — public service
“No son de disturbios actuales en Países Bajos, son imágenes de 2024 ... encontramos el mismo vídeo difundido el 17 de febrero de 2024 ... geolocalizado en el Centro de Conferencias Opera de La Haya.”
- 2فيديو قديم لمواجهات بين إريتريين في لاهاي وليس لأعمال شغب حديثة ↗
Misbar · misbar.comUntiereduntiered — treated as signal only, never decisive
“تبين أنه مضلل، إذ إنه قديم ... مواجهات وقعت في فبراير/شباط 2024 بين مجموعتين من الإريتريين ... عند مركز أوبرا للمناسبات في شارع فروتفيغ.”
- 3OM eist gevangenisstraffen tegen relschoppers Den Haag ↗
Openbaar Ministerie (Dutch Public Prosecution Service) · om.nlUntiereduntiered — treated as signal only, never decisive
“Op 17 februari 2024 ging het helemaal mis bij Zalencentrum Opera in Den Haag ... politieauto's en auto's van buurtbewoners werden vernield, in brand gestoken ... een touringcar werd in brand gestoken.”
- 4Ernstige ongeregeldheden - Fruitweg - Den Haag ↗
Politie.nl (Dutch police) · politie.nlUntiereduntiered — treated as signal only, never decisive
“Rond het zalencentrum Opera aan de Fruitweg zijn zaterdagavond 17 februari ernstige rellen uitgebroken nadat een groep Eritreeërs de confrontatie zocht met een andere groep.”
- 5Pictured: Smouldering aftermath of Hague riots sparked by rival Eritrean mobs ↗
Daily Mail · dailymail.comUntiereduntiered — treated as signal only, never decisive
“Clashes between two groups of Eritreans during riots after a meeting in the conference center in The Hague on February 17, 2024.”
- 6Watch | Chaos In The Hague as Migrants Clash, Police Cars Torched In Massive Riot ↗
News18 · news18.comUntiereduntiered — treated as signal only, never decisive
“The riot stemmed from a fight between two factions of Eritreans ... several smashed windows and vehicles engulfed in flames.”
The full story
Bias
Leans anti-immigrant / anti-EU. The caption frames an old, specific communal clash as an ongoing invasion ('Eritrean migrants are wreaking havoc', 'EUROPE IS BURNING', 'the EU remains silent'), a template widely used by right-wing engagement accounts to stoke alarm about migration. It presents migrants collectively as perpetrators of 'war' and casts the EU as complicit by inaction, without mentioning that the 2024 violence was inter-communal fighting among Eritreans.
Bias describes how the post frames its message — the slant of the language, selection and emphasis — and is judged separately from whether the claim is true. A true claim can still be framed with a strong slant.
How we checked
44 sThe video is genuine footage of the February 2024 Eritrean community riots at The Hague's Opera Zalencentrum, but the post presents it as current unrest in October 2026 — a claim two independent fact-checks have already debunked.
- The clip is authentic, unedited phone footage; RTVE and Misbar both geolocated it to Opera Zalencentrum, Fruitweg 26, The Hague.
- It records the 17 February 2024 clashes between supporters and opponents of the Eritrean government, when police vehicles and a coach were torched and officers injured.
- The post's framing — 'WAR ON THE STREETS OF THE HAGUE' happening now, with 'the EU silent' — implies a late-October 2026 event; no such riot occurred in The Hague then.
- RTVE (27 Oct 2026) reported that identical 24-second video was pushed on X on 26-27 October 2026 with 'breaking' captions, and rated the current-unrest claim false.
- Dutch authorities documented the real 2024 riots: dozens of suspects prosecuted, convictions in July 2024 and a later appeal ruling, with roughly 700,000-775,000 euros in damage claims.
- The incidental detail that The Hague hosts the ICC is correct; the 'Europe is burning / EU silent' line is rhetoric, not a checkable fact.
- The overall effect is classic recontextualisation: real violence, real footage, wrong date and place-in-time — used to imply an ongoing migrant 'war' in Europe.
- Earliest known appearance of this media: 17 February 2024 — the clip circulated on Dutch/English-language social media and was carried by NL Times that day; geolocated by fact-checkers to Opera Zalencentrum, Fruitweg 26, The Hague.
✓ Claim checked✓ Media checked✓ Sources checked
Why 92% confidence
HighHigh confidence from independent corroboration.
About this check
- Platform
- X
- Posted by
- @mariobojic
- Posted
- October 26, 2026
- Age when checked
- Older post, still live
- Where it spread
- Netherlands, ER
- Audience
- UK & EU audience
- Language
- EN
- Status
- ● Post is live
- Verified
- October 29, 2026, 03:11 UTC
- Published
- October 29, 2026, 03:11 UTC
Reach. 3,221 likes on @MarioBojic; @MAGAStorm47 668 likes ('Massive riots have started in The Hague... broke into the Opera House'); Portuguese repost @canalsergio2 251 likes; Misbar fact-check 28 Oct
This verdict was generated with AI from the sources shown. AI can make mistakes — check the sources before relying on it.
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