The Central African Republic targeted by the infox, at the service of Russian interests
Audio 03:16
This photo has circulated a lot on social networks in French-speaking Africa, assuring that Russia had just offered a private jet to the presidency of the Central African Republic.
© RFI
By: Sophie Malibeaux
8 mins
The image is supposed to symbolize the generosity of Russia towards the Central African Republic.
The caption of the photo refers to the delivery of a private jet by Moscow to the President of the RCA Faustin-Archange Touadéra.
The image of the jet emerging from the bowels of an Antonov circulates extensively on social media, but everything is false in this story.
Publicity
Contrary to the legend which accompanies it, the cliché has no relation neither with Russia, nor with the Central African Republic.
It is an image taken out of context that has been shared thousands of times on networks and in private groups, such as on WhatsApp.
Screenshot of a Facebook post made on May 07, 2021 © Facebook
In reality, it is not the Bangui tarmac that welcomes the aircraft, but that of Nuremberg airport in Germany.
The private jet - a Bombardier Challenger 604 - was transported from Muscat (Sultanate of Oman), after a theft incident rendering it unusable.
It was bought for its spare parts by a German company.
We see him come out of an
Antonov
, of course, a plane built by Russia, but this one bears the colors of the Ukraine.
Reverse image search
To verify the authenticity of this photo, simply use the tools available on the internet to perform a reverse image search.
This helps to know when this photo first appeared on the networks.
We save the image or its URL and enter the file in a search engine such as Tin Eye or Google Image, which very quickly find the articles in which it has already appeared.
In this case, it was in December 2017, because many specialized magazines were interested in this aircraft victim of a phenomenon of turbulence after having grazed an Airbus A 380 in the air, as shown by the factual AFP which also spotted the circulation of this infox.
Exploitation of anti-French sentiment
The nature of the comments accompanying the photo says a lot about the intentions of this post, while at the same time strengthening adherence to the pro-Russian narrative, it is about stoking hatred of France: "
The Russian Federation offers a private jet to the Central African president who until now has only traveled on commercial flights. Continue to believe in these French liars who according to them are the only good people on earth and the others demons
", or"
France has never done that, how to hate Russia after that
","
thank you Putin
"
etc ... a lot of pro-Russian and hostile reactions to France, in this country where Moscow spares no effort in the disclosure of false internet content.
In fact, it is difficult to know precisely the origin of this infox.
It is one example among others, coming to feed a pro-Russian narrative which does not bother with factual reality, and concomitantly, promotes an anti-UN and anti-French narrative.
These websites and Facebook page multiply diatribes against the UN and Minusca, which France is accused of having corrupted.
False information is circulating announcing the replacement of Mankeur Ndiaye, special representative of the UN secretary general and head of MINUSCA, or even his death, not proven.
Involvement of the European far right
How are these infoxes spread? We observe a nebula of online media, propagating conspiracy theories, such as
Afrique Media
, where we frequently see the intervention of the Belgian far-right activist Luc Michel, a member of neo-Nazi groups active in Europe and Africa in the service of Russian interests. The day after the publication of an RFI investigation into the abuses of
Russian
"
instructors
" against civilians in the CAR, the Russian ambassador in the CAR Vladimir Titorenco posted on his Facebook page, the interview he gave to
afriquemediatv
. In this interview, as in his press release, he disputes the accusations of violence committed by Russian auxiliaries, after having taken care to specify that the instructors incriminated “
are not regular forces
”.
Which makes it possible to wonder: if the Russian state has nothing to do with these mercenaries, why want to hush up the accusations of rape and other very real testimonies on the violence that these men are suspected of having committed?
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