According to the Hiram 1555 blog, the phenomenon was first captured on film in Samatiguila in the francophone country. The next video was captured a few kilometres away in the small village of Fanfala. 

However, these were not five suns, but a phenomenon known as sun dogs or parhelia (singular: parhelion), meaning "beside the sun". 

According to Livescience.com, sun dogs are also referred to as mock suns or phantom suns and appear as coloured areas of light to the left or the right of the sun at the same distance above the horizon as the sun. They form a ring or halo around the sun.

"Sun dogs are formed from hexagonal ice crystals in high and cold cirrus clouds or, during very cold weather, by ice crystals drifting in the air at low levels. These crystals act as prisms, bending the light rays passing through them. As the crystals sink through the air they become vertically aligned, refracting the sunlight horizontally so that sun dogs are observed," wrote Livescience.com.

According to the online publication, sun dogs can occur any time of the year, in any place, and not only in cold climates. They might display a bluish-white tail that stretches horizontally away from it.  

The sun dog gradually disappears as the sun rises.

The Ancient Greeks came to realise that sun dogs were a fairly accurate rain forecaster, according to Livescience.com.

African News Agency (ANA)