Posts use old video in misleading claim about UN drone crashing in DRC with weapons and gold

“United Nations registered drone reportedly found in a Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) village, loaded with 900 pounds of pure gold, guns and parachutes,” reads the caption of a post on X (formerly Twitter), published with a video on November 11, 2023.

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A screenshot of the misleading post, taken on November 23, 2023

Originally debunked by AFP Fact Check in French, similar posts are circulating elsewhere on X and TikTok, mostly in anglophone African countries.

In the 90-second clip, men and boys push an aircraft along a dirt road in a mountainous area. One of them is armed and wearing military fatigues.

Several people are speaking Swahili, one of the national languages of the DRC.

“It has cameras. Rotate it first,” they say.

“It has parachutes. I am going to the back. We will take it to the town centre. We are going with it to the town centre. It appears trapped. We are trying to find a way of freeing it.”

“Let’s go, let’s go,” they say in unison.

The letters “UN” can be seen on the front of the aircraft, while the sequence “UN 897” is visible under the wing in smaller text.

The caption overlaid on the video includes a specific date - November 3, 2023 - and claims the drone was “found in the DRC” and was transporting “900 pounds of pure gold and guns and parachutes”.

“Now this picture can’t be clearer who is bringing instability to Africa,” the text reads.

The UN mission in the DRC, referred to as MONUSCO, is widely criticised by the Congolese for having failed to put an end to the violence perpetrated by armed groups in the country (archived here).

A former Belgian colony, the DRC is endowed with immense mineral resources, often extracted by foreign companies or armed groups backed by neighbouring countries (archived here).

Despite these vast stores of mineral wealth, the majority of the population lives in extreme poverty (archived here).

However, the video shared in these posts is old and the drone model’s carrying capacity is far less than 900 pounds. The footage features neither gold nor weapons.

Video from 2022

By conducting a reverse image search using InVid-WeVerify, AFP Fact Check found a YouTube video posted on November 8, 2022, by a channel called “Afri Infos 243” (archived here).

“A large MONUSCO drone, equipped with a sophisticated camera, crashed in Virunga National Park near Lubero on Friday, November 4, 2022,” reads the caption.

This national park is located in eastern DRC.

Using a keyword search for “drone crash DRC,” AFP Fact Check found other posts related to the incident, including a press release from MONUSCO posted to X on the same day (archived here).

“Today in the afternoon, a drone belonging to MONUSCO crashed in Virunga National Park. MONUSCO troops recovered it to repair it. It was not attacked,” reads the Swahili post.

A spokesperson for MONUSCO, Ndeye Khady Lo, confirmed the authenticity of this press release to AFP Fact Check on November 15, 2023.

Then, using an advanced search on X, AFP Fact Check found other images published by local media in November 2022 documenting the crash, including a post on X from a Rwandan news outlet (archived here).

Maximum payload

The identification number, UN 897, is visible in both the misleading post and the image seen in the MONUSCO press release.

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A comparison of the misleading post and the UN press release

By conducting a keyword search for “UN 897 drone” we found an incident report (archived here) published on November 4, 2022, by a user on the Flight Safety Foundation site, a US-based NGO (archived here).

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A screenshot of the incident report from the Flight Safety Foundation’s website, taken on November 15, 2023

The report states that a “Leonardo Falco Evo”, identified as “UN 897”, took off from Beni airport, located not far from where the drone was found.

A Leonardo Falco Evo is a type of drone produced by an Italian-based company that sells unmanned systems (archived here).

AFP Fact Check contacted an expert in the European defence and arms industry to take a look at the drone seen in the online posts.

“Given its identification number [UN 897], this is a Falco-EVO drone produced by Leonardo. In the video, it is equipped with an optronic ball used for observation and mapping missions. It’s a tactical drone used primarily for intelligence purposes,” Gaspard Schnitzler of French think-tank IRIS told AFP Fact Check (archived here).

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A screenshot showing the optronic ball, taken on November 22, 2023

“Its use is part of a service contract signed in 2013 between the manufacturer and the UN,” Schnitzler said, adding that the aircraft is “capable of carrying a payload up to 100 kilogrammes (220 pounds) maximum.”

The Falco EVO technical sheet, available on Leonardo’s website, states that the vehicle’s maximum payload cannot exceed 100 kilogrammes or 220 pounds – less than a quarter of what was claimed on social media.

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A screenshot of the drone’s specs from the Leonardo website, taken on November 15, 2023

Another expert contacted by AFP Fact Check confirmed the drone is a Falco-EVO and explained why there was a parachute onboard.

“We see a Falco drone. It’s used by UN peacekeeping missions … The parachute is deployed. It’s an airframe parachute used to recover the drone if it has a mechanical problem in flight,” said Elie Tenenbaum, director of French think-tank Ifri’s Center of Security Studies (archived here).

AFP’s archives contain photographs of a Falco drone taking off during an official launch ceremony at an airport in Goma, a city in eastern DRC, back in 2013.

“The MONUSCO mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo currently has two unarmed UAVs. Both are intended exclusively for reconnaissance missions, in support of ground forces. The mission should be equipped with three more by March next year,” explains the photo caption.

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A 2013 photo of a surveillance drone belonging to MONUSCO at Goma airport, eastern DRC, as seen in AFP's archives

There have already been several accidents involving this type of aircraft. In January 2014, a UN drone crashed “on landing” at Goma airport without causing any casualties (archived here).

The aircraft was “completely destroyed”, according to a Congolese air force officer who spoke to AFP at the time (archived here).

UN pushed out

Peacekeepers have been present in the DRC since 1999 but militia violence has continued to plague the east of the country (archived here).

Dozens of armed groups are active in eastern DRC, a legacy of regional wars that flared in the 1990s and 2000s.

MONUSCO’s current 14,000-strong peacekeeping force is deeply unpopular due to perceptions that it has done little to stop violence.

The Congolese government has requested the troops’ “accelerated” departure.

The UN peacekeeping mission said on November 22, 2023, that it had signed a withdrawal plan without offering details about a timeline.