During a meeting at the White House, US President Donald Trump showed South African President Cyril Ramaphosa screenshots of a video he claimed depicted violence against white farmers in South Africa. However, it has emerged that the footage was actually filmed in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, during a mass funeral for victims of clashes with the M23 rebel group, and not related to South Africa.
The footage, originally published by Reuters journalist Djaffar Al Katanty on February 3, shows humanitarian workers carrying body bags. Trump described the images as “white farmers being buried” and referred to the violence as “genocide,” adding, “If this is genocide, we need to take these people into our country.” He also cited Elon Musk, saying, “Elon is from South Africa. He knows what’s going on very well.”
President Ramaphosa responded, “I would have liked to have known where these videos were shot before they were shown to me,” and rejected the genocide claim, saying, “What is happening in South Africa is not a racial genocide, it is a widespread criminal problem. The victims are not just whites, they are mostly blacks.”
TR