Old photos shared online do not show oil pipeline fire amid Sudan clashes in April 2023

This article is more than one year old.
Published on April 20, 2023 at 13:34
2 min read
By James OKONG'O, AFP Kenya

As deadly clashes erupted in Sudan between the army and paramilitary troops in April 2023, images emerged online alongside a claim that they show fire razing an oil pipeline in Port Sudan. But this is false: AFP Fact Check found the photos were old and unrelated to the unrest in the country. There were no reports of a fire affecting the pipeline as of April 20, 2023.

“Sudan oil pipelines that carry South Sudan oil have been razed down by locals in Port Sudan as fighting intensifies across the country,” reads the post published on Facebook on April 15, 2023.

It features two pictures showing what looks like a huge fire at an oil pipeline and a leak from a massive pipe.

Screenshot showing the false post, taken on April 19, 2023

Sudan conflict

Port Sudan is the country’s main seaport (archived here). It has a petroleum refinery and a pipeline that transports oil to Sudan’s capital Khartoum.

There have so far been no reports (archived here) of Port Sudan’s oil infrastructure being damaged since the fighting broke out.

The clashes erupted on April 15 after a weeks-long power struggle between two generals who seized power in a 2021 coup: army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Burhan and Daglo disagreed over the planned integration of the RSF into Sudan's regular army -- a key condition for a final deal aimed at resuming the country’s democratic transition.

Gunfire, missiles and airstrikes have characterised the deadly unrest (archived here).

The conflict derails an internationally backed plan for a transition to a civilian democracy four years after the ouster of former Sudan president Omar al-Bashir through mass protests.

But the pictures do not show a recent oil pipeline fire in Sudan.

Old images

Using reverse image searches, AFP Fact Check found that the two pictures were from unrelated events and have been online for more than a decade.

The pair of images appear on the iStock photo archive here and here (archived here and here).

The first image, which was uploaded to iStock in 2006, also appears in the Getty Images archives (archived here). On both Getty and iStock, it is credited to “jccommerce” and described as a leaking fuel pipe, without further details.

Screenshot showing the original image on the Getty Images photo archive

The second image was uploaded on iStock in 2010, where it is described as showing an oil leak from a tanker. It is credited to “ferdinandas”, with no further details.

Screenshot showing the original oil leak image on the iStock photo archive

AFP Fact Check contacted iStock for clarification about where the images were taken. We will update this article in case of response.

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