Photo shows flooded road in South Africa in 2016, not South Sudan

The image was published on Facebook on April 21, 2022, and has since been shared more than 100 times and drawn hundreds of comments.   

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Screenshot of the false post taken on April 25, 2022

The picture shows several vehicles trapped in a flooded section of a major road.

"Juba, South Sudan. Today’s rain," reads the caption.

According to the World Meteorological Organization, parts of South Sudan started receiving rains in early April. These are expected to increase in May, possibly leading to flooding and other devastation.

The country has been devastated by floods in recent years, with 2021 being the worst on record when more than 800,000 people were affected, according to the UN.

But the image shared on Facebook does not show flooding in Juba.

Disaster in Johannesburg

A reverse image search by AFP Fact Check found that the picture has been online since at least 2016 and shows a flooded road in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The image was tweeted on November 9, 2016, by South Africa’s Emerg-E-Med -- a private ambulance service operating in the provinces of Gauteng, Northern Cape, Mpumalanga, Free-State and KwaZulu-Natal.

Other versions of the photo were published locally (here and here), by an international media channel (here) and on the Johannesburg city municipality's official Twitter account (here) in November 2016. 

According to media reports, the floods struck Johannesburg and nearby Ekurhuleni, killing at least six people and injuring several more. 

Tragedy in KwaZulu-Natal

Meanwhile, KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa is still reeling from torrential floods in April 2022 that have killed more than 400 people and displaced 6,000 others.

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Enkanini informal settlement in Durban affected by landslides due to the recent floods in the region ( AFP / GUILLEM SARTORIO)

In response, President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national disaster on April 18, 2022.