The evidence of supposed mass killings of white South Africans presented by Donald Trump in a tense White House meeting on Wednesday were in some cases images from the Democratic Republic of Congo, while footage shown during the meeting was falsely portrayed as depicting “burial sites”.
“These are all white farmers that are being buried,” said Trump, holding up a print-out of an article accompanied by a picture during the contentious Oval Office meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The picture accompanying the article was in fact a screengrab of a video published by Reuters on 3 February and subsequently verified by the news agency’s fact check team, showing humanitarian workers lifting body bags in the Congolese city of Goma. The image was pulled from Reuters footage shot after deadly battles with Rwanda-backed M23 rebels.
The White House did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
At another point in the meeting, Trump ambushed Ramaphosa by playing a video that he claimed proved genocide is being committed against white people in South Africa. Within it was footage that Trump claimed showed the graves of more than a thousand white farmers, marked by white crosses.
The footage – taken at a highway connecting the small towns of Newcastle and Normandein in South Africa – in fact showed a memorial site, and not graves.
Rob Hoatson, who set up the memorial to capture public attention, told the BBC it was not a burial site.
“It was a memorial. It was...
In today's episode of Washington Watch, U.S. President Donald Trump used an Oval Office meeting to confront South Africa's president over baseless claims of "genocide" against white South African f...