Posts share old clips falsely claiming they show US soldiers in DR Congo in 2025
- Published on January 31, 2025 at 16:05
- 5 min read
- By Mary KULUNDU, AFP Kenya
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“Breaking News US Military arrives at (in) Congo to save Marcel Malanga and his 2 friends (sic),” reads the caption of a TikTok video published on January 23, 2025.
The clip shows military trucks bearing US flags driving on a wet street, followed by footage of a US Army plane and an American Airlines jet landing at an airport.
At the bottom of the video, a picture is layered on top showing Marcel Malanga -- a US citizen and the son of Congolese coup leader Christian Malanga -- in prison uniform alongside other inmates.
The same claim was repeated in another TikTok post using a different video, this one showing hundreds of American soldiers walking in a vast field with helicopters hovering above them.
On Facebook, the same claim appeared in a post alongside yet another video, this one showing a white military officer being escorted by his black counterpart to inspect a parade shortly after disembarking from an aircraft.
“Us military just arrived Congo to save Marcel malanga and his 2 friends from Congolese (sic),” reads the caption.
Who is Malanga?
Marcel Malanga is a US-born son of Congolese coup leader Christian Malanga, who was killed last year in a foiled coup in the DRC.
On May 19, 2024, Christian Malanga and around 40 other assailants, including Marcel, ambushed the residence of Economy Minister Vital Kamerhe, in the Gombe area in the north of the capital, near the Palais de la Nation that houses President Felix Tshisekedi's offices (archived here).
At the time, a DRC army spokesperson said Christian Malanga was a “naturalised American”.
During the attack, the assailants of “various nationalities” were arrested and four killed, including Christian Malanga.
Marcel Malanga was one of three US citizens among 37 people sentenced to death over the failed coup (archived here).
Claims that the US military was deployed to the DRC to rescue Marcel Malanga began circulating following the latest unrest in the African nation.
However, these claims are false.
Old, unrelated clips
There are no credible reports of the US government providing military assistance in the ongoing crisis in the DRC. Meanwhile, the videos circulating online are old and unrelated to current events.
Using InVID-WeVerify, we conducted reverse image searches on the first video, which shows US military trucks driving in the rain. The search results reveal that the footage was originally published by Sky News Arabia on January 26, 2020 (archived here).
The video report explained that it showed the head of US Central Command visiting military bases in northern Syria.
We then used InVID-WeVerify to conduct reverse image searches on the second video, the one showing hundreds of US soldiers walking in the hills as helicopters fly above.
We located the clip on a TikTok account belonging to a user named “Mr. Griffis” who is also active on Instagram under his full name, Ryan Griffis.
Griffis is a US Army captain who is popular on TikTok and Instagram for using the platforms to share insights about his military career, the traumas he experienced in battle, and his advocacy of mental health (archived here and here).
He published the video on June 15, 2024, captioning it: “HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARMY. One of the coolest things I’ve been in charge of!”.
On June 14, 2024, the US Army celebrated its 249th birthday (archived here).
The third video of a military officer inspecting a parade is also dated.
A search using InVID-WeVerify shows a screenshot of the clip in Congolese media reports (here and here) published on December 11, 2024 (archived here and here).
According to these reports, Belgian defense chief Frederic Francina was assessing a military centre in Kindu, the capital of Maniema province in DRC.
The full clip was also posted on Facebook on December 17, 2024, by a user in the DRC (archived here).
US on Congo conflict
On January 28, 2025, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio pressed Rwanda for an immediate ceasefire in the DRC as he voiced alarm over Kigali-backed rebels entering the key city of Goma (archived here).
In a call with Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Rubio “stressed the United States is deeply troubled by escalation of the ongoing conflict in eastern DRC, particularly the fall of Goma to the Rwandan-backed M23 armed group,” a State Department statement said.
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