A Greek news website published an article on May 5, 2023, reporting on floods in Congo’s South Kivu area. However, is the image attached to the article connected to the floods in Congo?
Background
The Democratic Republic of Congo is indeed experiencing floods currently, with South Kivu province being among the hardest hit areas. According to a report published by Reuters on May 23, 2023, the floods killed about 460 people from South Kivu’s villages of Bushushu and Nyamukubi.
Verification
According to a Google image reverse search, the image attached to the Greek news website is neither from Congo, nor from this year.
The image initially featured on a Ghanaian website in June 2011. It was further published in subsequent years such as in 2016, 2017 here and 2019. Albeit none of the image results contain a caption describing the exact location of the image, all image results lead to Ghanaian websites. No legitimate source indicates that the image is from Congo or from recent floods.
Verdict
The news article claiming to show an image of floods in Congo is MISLEADING.
This fact-check was produced by Africa Uncensored with support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck, the International Fact-Checking Network, and the African Fact-Checking Alliance network.
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