Fact Check: Did a UN Drone loaded with Gold, Guns Crash In D.R Congo?
Claim: A viral video circulating across the social media platforms, especially on TikTok, YouTube, and other online media claims a United Nations (UN) drone loaded with gold, foreign currencies, guns and parachutes, crashed-landed in the Northern part of Kivu-Goma, D.R Congo, on 3rd November, 2023.
Full Text: The video which has generated over 1.8million views and 4.7 thousand likes on Youtube and about 30 thousand views on one of the x post carried different captions and sub-captions as follows;
#DRC ???????? #MONUSCO Mineral looting. A UN drone found in a village in Congo full of pure Gold and guns. Now you can see who is bringing instability in DRC Operation #Springbok.”
Another text reads, “UN drone found in the village in Congo transports 900 pounds of pure golds, guns and parachutes”, and another reads: “a UN drone found in the DRC loaded with gold and guns. Now the picture can’t be clearer who is bringing instability to Africa”.
In the video, some villagers could be heard speaking in Swahili and Lingala language which translates as follows, “this is what the UN is really doing in DRC looting the country of its natural resources”
Recall that the UN has been in DRC on a peacekeeping mission since 1999, through-The United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or MONUSCO, an acronym based on its French name Mission de l’Organisation des Nations Unies pour la stabilisation en République démocratique du Congo
Verification: In order to unearth the veracity of the claims, PRNigeria fact-check team searched the internet with varying keyword filtering which led to a YouTube video on UN readiness to deploy drone to the war torn zone in the DRC in 2013 for better performance of their mandate; which they called “unarmed drone”.
This was also confirmed by BBC news on December 3, 2013 about the UN launching its first drone in DRC.
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Further investigation revealed that there was a report of a drone crash on the same location as the claim in the widely circulated video in October 2015, which occured without reference to gold, money, guns and parachutes.
Foreign Policy journal also reported a similar incident in Kivu, the northern part of goma with no reference to gold or guns being stuck in the drone.
Similarly, the Guardian also reported that a drone crash-landed in DRC, in the city of Kivu-Goma, in January 2014. However, there was no mention of gold or guns in the drone as purported in the video either.
An X user named the “Chronicles” with the handle @chroniclesRW, posted a video of a drone having UN inscription on the body that crashed in the Eastern part of Virunga near Lake Edward, DRC on 15 November, 2022. In the video, the villagers could be seen trying to move the drone to a safe place. But there is no evidence of “gold,” “money,” “guns” or “parachutes.”
On closer examination of all the obtained related clips, PRNigeria fact-check desk observed that in the video there was no proof of gold, parachutes, pounds or guns at the site of the crash.
PRNigeria fact-check also discovered that each time it did the keyword search filtering, the results return to the first UN drone launch on 3 Dec.2013.
The team observed that given the sensitive nature of this claim, it would likely have been reported by major international news outlets, such as CNN, BBC, Aljazeera or Reuters if this video claims which surfaced between the 3rd and 4th of November, 2023, but it was never reported by these or any other reputable local or international media platform.
However PRNigeria observed that, indeed there were several conflicting reports of UN drone crashes between 2015 and 2022, including a report of a UN helicopter crash in DRC in March 2022, which killed eight peacekeepers on.
The helicopter was on a reconnaissance mission when it crashed in the area of Tshanzu, where the M23 rebel group and the Congolese army were fighting. But certainly not in November, 2023.
Conclusion: After thorough investigation on the widely shared video on several social media platforms which portrayed a United Nations drone in the DRC, of the locals alleging that the drone was carrying gold, guns, and parachutes; PRNigeria could not find any credible sources to verify this claim.
PRNigeria therefore concludes that there is insufficient evidence to support the accuracy or reliability of the claim.
By PRNigeria
