Video shows Tanzanian truck drivers – not soldiers – stranded in DRC conflict zone

Fighters from the M23 armed group recently captured the city of Goma in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo during a rapid offensive. A video shared on X is purported to show Tanzanian soldiers surrounded and under fire from the combatants near Goma airport. This is false; the video shows truck drivers appealing to the Tanzanian government to rescue them from the fighting. They were later escorted safely home.

“In this video, Tanzanian soldiers, whom President Tshisekedi invited to DRC to help him fight M23, are surrounded and stranded at Goma airport without anyone to help rescue them. Now Tshisekedi’s rescuers are the ones that need to be rescued,” reads an X post shared on January 28, 2024.

Image

Screenshot of the false post, taken on February 3, 2025

Felix Tshisekedi is the DRC’s leader.

The clip shows trucks parked in what appears to be a deserted enclosure. Gunshots are audible in the background.

“We are asking for help please. As you can hear, we are surrounded by gunfire. We are hiding at a place called Jambo Safari, near Goma airport. We have no one to help us get out of here. Our army and the MONUSCO peacekeepers are less than a kilometre from here, but we have no way of contacting them,” says a person speaking Swahili.

The voice adds that their group consists of 43 Tanzanians and fears the “armed group” will kill them if they are found.

“Tanzania, we are appealing for your help,” the man says.

M23 fighters

The M23 – short for March 23 Movement – fighters announced they had captured Goma, the capital city of North Kivu, on January 27, 2025 (archived here and here).

The group got its name from the March 23, 2009, peace agreement between the DRC government and a previous Tutsi armed group that was known as the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP) (archived here).

Part of the agreement was to integrate former CNDP fighters into the country’s armed forces, the FARDC. Some of the group members, however, defected and formed M23 in 2012, claiming the accord was not fully implemented (archived here).

The United Nations (UN) has long accused Rwanda of arming and supporting M23, allegations that Rwanda denies (archived here and here).

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) deployed a military force from South Africa, Tanzania and Malawi to fight M23 in the recent clashes (archived here). There are also soldiers from MONUSCO, the UN peacekeeping agency's stabilisation operation in the DRC (archived here).

However, the video shared online does not show Tanzanian soldiers stranded in Goma.

Stranded truck drivers

AFP Fact Check conducted a reverse image search on keyframes from the video and found a longer clip published on Tanzania’s Wasafi FM’s Facebook page on January 29, 2025.

According to the post, the chairman of Tanzania’s truck driver’s union, Hassan Dede, told Wasafi FM that 43 stranded drivers in Goma had been rescued by security forces and were being transported back to Tanzania (archived here).

The clip shared with the false claim on X can be seen 90 seconds into the Wasafi FM post.

Image

Screenshots comparing the Wasafi FM post (left) and the false X post

The Wasafi FM post also includes a different clip of the drivers at the beginning of the video, showing some of them hiding under the trucks, while others take turns to appeal for help from Tanzanian authorities. They mention that they are at Jambo Safari in Goma.

The voice of one driver who introduces himself as Emmanuel matches that of the man speaking in the video shared in the false X post.

The same footage of the cowering truck drivers was also shared here on social media in the same context (archived here).

Their plight was reported by other media outlets (archived here and here).

While keyword searches failed to turn up credible reports of Tanzanian soldiers being stranded in Goma, the Tanzania and People’s Defence Forces (TPDF) confirmed on February 2, 2025, that two of its soldiers were killed and four more injured in the DRC (archived here).

M23 declared a unilateral humanitarian ceasefire on February 4, 2025, amid reports from the UN that at least 900 people have been killed in the Goma clashes (archived here). 

A day later, the armed group launched a new offensive seizing the mining town of Nyabibwe in eastern DRC, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) from the provincial capital Bukavu (archived here).