Posts falsely claim old video of Congolese militia shows Ugandan rebels celebrating school massacre

On June 18, 2023, a TikTok account shared a video (archived here) of armed men trekking uphill alongside the caption: “ADF lebels [rebels] after attacking school in Kasese.”

As the men pass the camera, the videographer congratulates them in Lingala and French. Some smile at the camera or raise their thumbs.

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A screenshot of the false TikTok post, taken on June 20, 2023

“After killing students in Kasese they are celebrating there return back home (sic),” reads another TikTok video shared in this Facebook post.

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A screenshot of the false Facebook post, taken on June 20, 2023

The claim was repeated on Facebook here and in Ugandan WhatsApp groups.

School massacre

According to Ugandan authorities, militants attacked Lhubiriha Secondary School in Mpondwe, western Uganda, on June 16, 2023, killing at least 42 people, most of whom were students. They were reportedly slashed with machetes, shot and burnt to death.

Ugandan police blamed ADF rebels - who fled back towards the porous Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) border with abductees - for the deadly raid (archived here).

Twenty people have since been arrested for suspected collaboration.

The ADF is an armed group historically linked to predominantly Muslim Ugandan rebels opposed to President Yoweri Museveni. The Islamic State group describes ADF as a regional affiliate.

On June 20, 2023, local media reported the arrest of a man who claimed to be one of the assailants in a video published on TikTok (archived here).

However, the video of armed men trooping up a hill has nothing to do with the assault at the Ugandan school.

Old video

Using InVID-WEVerify, we conducted reverse image searches on multiple keyframes from the video and found that the footage has been published online many times, as far back as June 2022 (see here and here).

This Facebook post identified the armed men as “the Mai-Mai self-defense”, in reference to the Mai-Mai rebels active in the DRC.

An AFP journalist in Kinshasa watched the footage and noticed that the men in the clip, who speak both Lingala and French, identify themselves as members of the National People's Coalition for the Sovereignty of Congo (CNPSC).

“CNPSC bravo (...) May God help you. I see CNPSC, special unit, once you get somewhere, this country has to fall,” a voice in the clip says.

The CNPSC is a coalition of armed militia groups, also known as Mai-Mai, that are active in the Fizi region, in South Kivu province (archived here).

It is led by William Yakutumba, who founded one of its largest militias, the Mai-Mai Yakutumba.

This video, therefore, is unrelated to the Ugandan school attack.