DRC: fighting continues in the east, and so does disinformation
Fighting continues in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo between the Congolese armed forces and their allies and the AFC/M23 politico-military group, which is supported by Rwanda, despite diplomatic efforts and a peace agreement signed under Washington's auspices. A video presented on social media as documenting the capture of AFC/M23 fighters was in fact filmed in Ethiopia and shows members of the Ethiopian National Defence Forces captured by the Oromo Liberation Army. A separate fourteen-second video said to show two Sukhoi fighter jets over Minembwe, in South Kivu, was generated by artificial intelligence, with the aircraft identified as Eurofighter Typhoons that neither the Congolese nor the Rwandan army operates.
Why it matters: The item illustrates the disinformation theme, showing how decontextualised and AI-generated material is used by anonymous accounts for propaganda and complicates verification of events in eastern DRC.