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The influencers also promote figures like Burkina Faso's military leader Capt Ibrahim Traoré, who seized power in a coup in 2022.

The BBC Global Disinformation Unit analysed mentions of the fake Ivorian coup reports on TikTok, Facebook, X and YouTube – and the earliest popular post we found was on 19 May by Harouna Sawadogo, a pro-government activist in Burkina Faso who makes content for his 200,000 TikTok followers almost exclusively about Capt Traoré.

Kenyan YouTuber Godfrey Otieno, who produces content on trending news, said he stumbled on to this winning formula several months ago when he posted a video reporting the false claim that Capt Traoré had been shot by his best friend.

Two other soldiers however suggested he had been "mismanaged" as opposed to being bullied, while Capt Ben Atkin, RSM for L/Cpl Mongan's battalion said physical exercise was "not allowed to be used in the British Army as a punishment" and "if I had seen it, I would have stopped it".

Asked if that was a significant failure in communication, Capt Atkin told the hearing: "It's an issue, it's a failing, the system should have worked."