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| - Fact Check: No, these photos DO NOT show the effects of civil war in Sudan
India Today found that both images are old. Additionally, one of them is photoshopped.
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India Today Fact Check
One photo shows a bridge that links Crimea to Russia. The other, while from Sudan, was photoshopped.
Clashes between Sudan's military and the country's main paramilitary force have left at least 185 people dead. On April 18, the rival forces agreed to a 24-hour ceasefire.
Amid these developments, two images allegedly showing the devastation in Sudan have gone viral on social media. One shows a burning bridge. The other shows a building on fire.
A Twitter user shared these photos and wrote: “Let us pray for Sudan Khartoum. Where is African Union, where is Arab League.” The archived version of this post can be seen here.
India Today found that both images are old and thus not related to the ongoing civil war in Sudan. One shows a bridge that links Crimea to Russia. The other, while from Sudan, was photoshopped.
Our Probe
A quick reverse search of the first image led us to an October 2022 report by Forbes. Per this report, this image shows a fire caused by a major explosion on the Kerch Bridge in Russia.
This explosion had isolated Russia and its troops from Crimea at a critical moment in the war. Russia’s state-run news agency TASS had reported at that time that this happened after a fuel storage tank caught fire.
What about the second image?
On reverse searching it, we found the second photo in a Twitter post dated August 26, 2013. While it appeared to be the same photo of the same building, there was no fire or smoke. At the same time, the fire and smoke in the viral photo appeared to have been digitally added.
This building is The Corinthia Hotel located in the Sudanese capital Khartoum. We were able to locate the place from where this picture was taken on Google maps.
We did not find any news reports saying that this particular building was damaged. So, we contacted Abdelmoniem Abuedries Ali, a journalist based in Khartoum, to verify this. He told India Today that while the Corinthia Hotel was located in a war-prone area, there had been no damage to it so far.
A spokesperson for the Sudanese Journalists Syndicate told India Today in an email that the Corinthia Hotel wasn’t damaged (at the time of writing this) and was operating normally. He also said that the building hosts the office of Al-Jazeera, which continues to broadcast from it.
While many buildings, including the Sudanese armed forces headquarter building and the Ministry of Defense building have been damaged in these clashes, it’s more than clear that these two photos don’t show the devastation in the country.
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