FALSE: This post claiming heavy fighting in Hamarweyne district in Mogadishu is false.
The image is from fighting in Mogadishu in 2009.
This post on X (formerly Twitter) with an image claiming that heavy gunfire erupted around the Banadir regional court and central prison in Mogadishu is FALSE.
The text accompanying the post shared on 12 October 2024 reads: “Breaking News: Heavy gunfire started in Mogadishu. The non-stop gunfire continues around the court till the central prison. Are you among the people woken up by the gunfire?”
The claim emerged two weeks before an explosion occurred in Mogadishu’s Dayniile district on 1 October 2024.
The Federation of Somali Journalists (FESOJ) conducted a reverse image search using Yandex and established that the image is from fighting in Mogadishu on 3 July 2009.
The image appeared in a 22 December 2009 article published by the SomaliSwiss website titled “Transitional Federal Government and al-Shabab spoke in different ways about the recent battles in Mogadishu.”
A keyword search on Google to verify if any media reported gunfire in Mogadishu’s Hamarweyne district on 12 October 2024 yielded no evidence.
FESOJ contacted Hamarweyne district commissioner Osman Muriidi Ali, who disowned the claim.
“The headquarters of the Banadir region and its surroundings are not places where gunfire could happen. There are many security checkpoints. Hamarweyne district is one of the places where gunfire cannot happen because it is located in the centre of the city,” Ali said via WhatsApp call.
Federation of Somali Journalists (FESOJ) has examined a Twitter post with an image claiming that heavy gunfire erupted around the Banadir regional court and central prison in Mogadishu and found 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).
