United States President Donald Trump showed a screen capture of a video of Reuters made in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Wednesday as alleged evidence of white South African mass murders.
“These are all white farmers being buried,” said Trump, holding a printed copy of a text accompanied by the image during the meeting at the White House Oval Hall with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
But, in fact, the video published by Reuters on February 3, and later verified by the news agency’s checking team, showed humanitarian workers raising bodies of bodies in the city of Goma, Congo.
The image was extracted from a Reuters filming made after deadly battles with the M23 rebels against the RD Congo government, which is supported by Rwanda.
Divergence of information with the images
The publication shown to Ramaphosa by Trump during the White House meeting was made by American Thinker, a conservative online magazine, on conflicts and racial tensions in South Africa and Congo.
There was no caption in the blog post image, but identified it as a “YouTube screen capture” with a link to a video report about Congo on the platform, which gave credit to Reuters.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Andrea Widburg, managing publisher at American Thinker and author of the post in question, wrote in response to a Reuters consultation that Trump had “mistakenly identified the image.”
She added, however, that the post, which referred to what she called the “dysfunctional Marxist government obsessed with Ramaphosa’s racial issue”, had “pointed to the growing pressure exerted on white South Africans”.
Original Author of the Filming said that the event “was a shock”
The filming from which the photo was taken shows a collective funeral after an attack from the M23 to Gum, filmed by Reuters Videojournalist Djaffar Al Katanty.
“That day, it was extremely difficult for journalists to come in … I had to negotiate directly with the M23 and coordinate with the CIAP (International Red Cross Committee) to be allowed to film,” said Al Katanty. “Only Reuters has video.”
Al Katanty said that seeing Trump holding the text with the screen capture of the video was a shock.
“In front of all over the world, President Trump used my image, used what I filmed at RDC to try to convince President Ramaphosa that in his country white people are being killed by black people,” said Al Katanty.
Ramaphosa visited Washington this week to bring ties to the United States after Trump’s persistent criticism in recent months over South Africa’s land laws, foreign policy and alleged maltreatment committed to white minority, which South Africa denies.
Trump interrupted the televised meeting with Ramaphosa to reproduce a video that, according to the US president, showed evidence of genocide from white farmers in South Africa.
This theory, which circulates in ultra-right chat rooms for years, is based on false allegations.
Trump then leafed printed copies of texts that, he said, detailed murders of white South Africans, saying “death, death, death, horrible death.”
This content was originally published in a photo of “Genocide” aired by Trump is from Congo, not from South Africa on the CNN Brazil website.
Source: CNN Brasil
Bruce Belcher is a seasoned author with over 5 years of experience in world news. He writes for online news websites and provides in-depth analysis on the world stock market. Bruce is known for his insightful perspectives and commitment to keeping the public informed.
