Since April 2023, a civil war has been ongoing in Sudan between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). After nearly a year and a half of siege, the RSF claimed to have captured the army’s last significant base in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, at the end of last October. Since then, multiple human rights organizations, including the United Nations, have reported widespread violence, looting, sexual violence, indiscriminate killings, and displacement in the area. Researchers at Yale University, analyzing satellite imagery, stated that a ‘genocide’ is underway in El Fasher and the surrounding areas.
Various photos and videos of this devastating humanitarian crisis in Sudan are rapidly spreading across social media. However, amidst this flow of information, multiple false and misleading pieces of information have also been circulated on various platforms. Rumor Scanner’s investigation found false information regarding 8 photos and 1 video circulated on social media.
Claim 1
A photo of several children sitting on the ground with their hands extended has been circulated on social media, claiming to be a scene from the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Sudan. The photo was spread on Facebook and X.
Rumor Scanner’s investigation found the same photo on the stock image agency Getty Images. According to the description, the photo was taken in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 2008. It shows children displaced by the conflict in the country waiting for candy to be distributed.
Comparison: Rumor Scanner
Therefore, this is a photo from Congo, not Sudan.
Claim 2
A photo of a child crying in front of an empty bowl has been circulated on social media, claiming to be a scene from the humanitarian crisis in Sudan. The photo was spread on Facebook, Instagram, and X.
Rumor Scanner’s investigation also found this photo on the Getty Images website. It is known that the photo is from 2002. It is a scene of a hungry child named Patricia Frank crying during the food crisis in Malawi.
Therefore, this is a photo from Malawi, not Sudan.
Claim 3
A photo has been circulated on social media, claiming that the Sudanese army destroyed an RSF military supply aircraft at Al-Fasher airport. The photo was spread on Facebook and Instagram.
Rumor Scanner’s investigation found the same photo in a report published on May 7 of this year by the UAE newspaper The National. The description stated that this is a scene of an aircraft on fire at Sanaa International Airport following an Israeli airstrike. Al Jazeera published a video of the same incident a day earlier. Reuters reported that Israel carried out multiple attacks on the main airport in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in May.
Therefore, this is a photo from Yemen, not Sudan.
Claim 4
A photo of one child carrying another child on their back while crying has been circulated on social media, claiming to be a scene from the humanitarian crisis in Sudan. The photo was spread on Facebook.
Rumor Scanner’s investigation found the same photo on the stock photography agency Alamy’s website. It is known that the photo is from 2008. It shows a child named Protegee crying while carrying her sibling on her back and looking for her parents in the village of Kiwanja, 90 km north of Goma, Eastern Congo.
Therefore, this is a photo from Congo, not Sudan.
Claim 5
A photo has been circulated on social media, claiming that a mother in Sudan is protecting her child from the RSF. The photo was spread on Facebook and Instagram.
Rumor Scanner’s observation showed a watermark that reads ‘khoubaib.bz’ in the photo. Following this lead, a video published on October 28 on the Instagram profile Khoubaib Ben Ziou (@khoubaib.bz) was found, which is similar to the photo. This means the photo is a still image from that video. The video’s caption mentions in Arabic that it was created with AI. The profile’s bio also identifies him as a ‘Creative AI Specialist’.
Therefore, this is a fictional scene created with AI, not a real event.
Claim 6
A photo has been circulated on social media, claiming that a child in Sudan is dragging their mother’s corpse. The photo was spread on Facebook and Instagram.
Rumor Scanner’s observation shows that the photo resembles an oil painting and has the Google Gemini AI watermark in the bottom right corner. An investigation found the original version of the image on Getty Images. The description notes that this 1994 scene shows a child crying next to his father, who died of cholera in Rwanda. This means the original photo was edited using AI to resemble an oil painting and was circulated as a recent event.
Therefore, this is an AI-edited version of a photo from Rwanda, not Sudan.
Claim 7
Various Bangladeshi media outlets used a photo of clothes, bags, shoes, plastic bottles, and papers scattered on the ground when reporting on the recent events in Sudan. This means the media outlets presented the photo as a scene from the recent events. Reports with this photo were published by: Kalbela, Janakantha, Khabarerkagoj, Manabkantha. The photo was also spread on Facebook.
Rumor Scanner’s investigation found the same photo attached to a report published on the Al Jazeera website in 2015. According to the description, this is a scene from a mosque in Bentiu town in Eastern South Sudan. A CNN report published in 2014 also mentioned the same information about the photo.
Therefore, this is a photo of an old event, not a recent event in Sudan.
Claim 8
A photo of numerous corpses lying in the middle of a road filled with rubble has been circulated on social media, claiming to be a recent scene from Sudan. The photo was spread on Facebook.
Rumor Scanner’s observation showed a watermark that reads ‘Meta AI’ in the bottom right corner of the photo. Meta AI is the generative Artificial Intelligence platform created by the technology company Meta, launched in 2023. This watermark is usually seen on images created with this AI, indicating that the content was generated by Meta AI. Subsequently, the photo was tested on the AI content detection platform Sightengine, which showed a 99% probability that it was created with AI.
Therefore, the photo is not real; it was created with AI.
Claim 9
A video of several children eating food while getting wet in the rain has been circulated on social media, claiming to be an incident in Sudan. The video was spread on Facebook and YouTube.
Rumor Scanner’s investigation found the same video on a Facebook profile named ‘Kipkalya Ke’ on April 24. The next day, the profile reported that the video was from Matepes village in the Rombo area of Kajiado South, Kenya. Citing local administration officials, the profile confirmed that the incident took place in that area. A local media outlet named Kajiado TV also published a report about the same video that day. The report stated that these children, who were facing financial hardship, went to a nearby event looking for food and got wet in the rain while eating. The report also published interviews with the mother of one of the children and the person who took the video, Jackson Lokai.
Therefore, the video is from Kenya, not Sudan.
