The footage, shot in exclusively in DRC by Reuters’ Djaffar Al Katanty, had no connection to South Africa.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump falsely presented a screenshot from a Reuters video taken in the Democratic Republic of Congo as evidence of killings of white South Africans during a meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa.
“These are all white farmers that are being buried,” Trump claimed, holding a printout of the article with the image, during their Oval Office meeting.
Reuters confirmed the photo was from a February 3 video showing humanitarian workers handling body bags after M23 rebel clashes in Goma, DRC. The footage, shot exclusively by Reuters’ Djaffar Al Katanty, had no connection to South Africa.
The article Trump referenced was published by American Thinker, which credited the image as a YouTube screengrab without context. Editor Andrea Widburg admitted Trump “misidentified the image” but defended the post’s broader point.
“It was shocking,” Al Katanty said. “Trump used what I filmed to falsely claim white people are being killed in South Africa.”