FAKE: This image is not of a man killed in clan conflict in central Somalia.
The image was captured from Astan Tv film released in May 2024
A post on X (formerly Twitter) claiming to show a Somali mother crying over the body of her son, who was allegedly killed in inter-clan fighting in the central Somali region of Galgadud in June 2024, is FALSE.
The text accompanying the post reads, “Somalias future is DARK. A Somali mother from Caabudwaaq town in Galgaduud region cries over her son’s dead body after he went to fight in a clan feud. What do you think?.”
The accounts shared the image claiming that the man was killed in the fighting in central Somalia in June, as seen here, here, and here.
Heavy inter-clan conflict occurred in a rural area between Abudwak and Herale districts in the Galgadud region during the first and second weeks of June 2024, here, here, here, and here.
However, the Federation of Somali Journalists (FESOJ) conducted a Google reverse image search, which revealed that the image in question was from an Astaan TV film series.
The FESOJ team then reviewed the Dahal series, specifically Season 1, Episode 7, released on 6 May 2014. The claimed image was captured at minute 17:51 of the 26:38-minute episode, which depicted the impact of clan conflict on communities and their grievances.
The image shows actors Sayid Mohamed Hussein and Maryan Mursal Yuusuf. In the series, Hussein’s character, who plays Yuusuf’s father, is killed by gunmen as part of a clan revenge plot, while Yuusuf’s character cries over his body. The scene was purely fictional.
To further verify the image, the FESOJ team contacted Astan TV Film Production and the director, Abshir Rageh Hassan, who confirmed that the photo was taken during the production of Dahal in Mogadishu.
“This photo was taken by the Astan Film Production team in Mogadishu, and it wasn’t taken in Galgadud region,” Rageh told the team via a phone call.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on 14 August 2024 that nearly 150,000 people have been displaced in various parts of Somalia due to clan conflicts since January. In 2024, 6.9 million people in Somalia are in need of humanitarian assistance.
The Federation of Somali Journalists (FESOJ) has examined a post on X (formerly Twitter) claiming to show a Somali mother crying over the body of her son, who was allegedly killed in inter-clan fighting in the central Somali region of Galgadud in June 2024, and finds it to be FALSE.
This fact-check was produced by Federation of Somali Journalists (FESOJ) under the African Fact-Checking Incubator programme, with support from PesaCheck, Code for Africa’s fact-checking initiative, and the African Fact-Checking Alliance(AFCA).
