After Rwanda deployed joint troops to fight an Islamist insurgency in Cabo Delgado province in Mozambique, this tweet shared on July 12 contained an image of an alleged capture from this mission. We establish when this image was taken and the authenticity of these claims.
Background
At the request of Mozambique, Rwanda deployed a 1,000-person troop to restore state control and security in the country’s Cabo province. The joint force, consisting of the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) and Rwanda National Police, will be working closely with Mozambique’s Armed Defence Forces (FADM) and forces from the Southern African Development Community (SADC). This joint mission is based on a bilateral agreement signed by the two countries between 2015 and 2018.
Verification
Sifting through reverse image searches, Piga Firimbi found that this image was first published by the Defence Visual Distribution Service on September 18, 2019. A description of this image attributes it to a field training exercise between the U.S and Rwandan forces, African militaries, allies and international organizations in Gabiro, Rwanda.
The Shared Accord 2019 was a mission focused on partnership and stability.
On September 26, 2019, the same image appeared under international news by the DayDay News Website. This site claimed that the soldier pictured had allegedly been captured by ‘Black Uncles’ and 81 rifles that were apparently recovered from the foreign detainees captured. Piga Firimbi found this to be false.
From this article, the image dates back to 2019, during the Shared Accord exercise.
Verdict
Claims that this image was taken during a joint peace-keeping mission in Mozambique are FALSE.
This story was produced by Africa Uncensored in partnership with Code for Africa with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie.
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