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| - Fact Check: Video of Somalia floods FALSELY shared as Cyclone Mocha in Myanmar
India Today found that the viral video had nothing to do with Cyclone Mocha. In fact, it's not from Asia at all.
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India Today Fact Check
This video predates the Myanmar cyclone by at least two weeks and shows flash floods in Somalia.
Following the devastation caused by Cyclone Mocha in Myanmar, a video of a man sitting what looks like a rickshaw, being carried away by floodwater gushing through the streets has gone viral. Allegedly, this video was from Myanmar and showed the cyclone’s effect. A Twitter user shared this video and wrote, “Cyclone Mocha makes landfall, brings catastrophe.” The archived version of this post can be seen here.
Reportedly, the death toll in Myanmar rose to 60 on May 16. Although, hundreds are feared dead. Mocha made landfall on May 14.
India Today’s investigation found that the viral video has nothing to do with Cyclone Mocha. In fact, it’s not from Asia at all. It shows floods in Somalia.
OUR PROBE
Using a keyword search, we found that a person quote-tweeted one of the viral posts claiming that it was from Somalia. Subsequent searches led us to an April 29 video news report on Meteored, a YouTube channel focused on meteorology. In it, the viral video was credited to Action for Women & Children Concern, a non-profit organisation in Somalia. As per the report, the video was from Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. Clearly, this video predates the recent cyclone in Myanmar.
WHAT'S HAPPENING IN SOMALIA?
Flash floods across Somalia have affected over 450,000 people and displaced around 200,000, reported the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The report added that around 22 people were killed in 17 districts since mid-March.
We looked for videos of the recent flash flood in the country and found a collection of videos, allegedly from Somalia, shared on Facebook on May 1. They appeared similar to the viral video. One of these videos contained the watermark of the TikTok account "@craxmanyare8". We checked the TikTok account and found that it contained clearer versions of three videos from the same location, including the viral video.
We noticed two significant visual clues in these TikTok videos. First, the design and colour of the rickshaws. We compared the red-brown rickshaws seen in the viral video with the ones seen in a Switch TV news report and noticed significant similarities.
Second, we also observed blue-white marks and numbers written on concrete pillars in the viral video. These appeared similar to pillars we noticed in a report on the flash floods by Universal Somali TV. We found these similarities in videos posted by multiple vloggers.
India Today reached out to Mohammed Nur, a former journalist based in Mogadishu who confirmed that this video was indeed from Somalia. While he couldn’t tell us where exactly the video was shot, he said that it might have been somewhere in the Hodan neighbourhood of Mogadishu.
India Today could not independently verify the exact date or location of this video. However, it is certain that the clip is from Somalia and is at least two weeks old.
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