FACT-CHECK | Photos of casket stockpiled with ammunition not taken in Pibor
A Facebook user with the name Beth Maketh has earlier this week posted two photos of soldiers carrying a casket stockpiled with ammunition.
The text accompanying the photos reads “Members of national security confiscated ammunition which they tried transported to Pibor yesterday. What a country.”
Pibor is one of the three administrative areas in South Sudan. While the region is a hotbed of armed conflict, the images posted by the aforementioned user were not taken from Pibor, nor was it taken from any location in South Sudan.
The images
In one of the two images, five armed soldiers in camouflage can be seen trying to carry the closed casket before opening it and showing out the ammunition inside.
A photo analysis with Pic2Map, a photo verification tool, found no EXIF data because Pic2Map requires unaltered photo files in order to process the data. Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter strip out EXIF data from uploaded photos.
The camouflage does not bear either the flag of South Sudan or that of the South Sudan People Defense Force (SSPDF) on the sleeves.
Origin of the image
A Google reverse image search indicates that the images first appeared on the internet in 2016. At the time, some Nigerian social media users alleged that the photos were taken from the West African country.
On March 30, 2016, Nigeria’s army spokesperson, Col. SK Usman, equivocally told Sahara Reporters: “The photos taken were from a training exercise held in 2012” adding that “It is normal to have other security agencies represented in all Internal Security trainings at schools or in barracks by army units.”
In South Sudan, no reputable media house published the story as of 4th February 2022, three days after the claim was made.
Conclusion
Having analysed the EXIF data and reverse search results of the images, The City Review fact-checking desk found that the claim that the photos of the casket stockpiled with ammunition were taken from Pibor is false.
