International-News

Trump shows pictures of dead in Congo to accuse South Africa of white genocide

A sensational episode occurred Wednesday at the White House: the U.S. president shows the South African leader fake photos in context, attributing them to a nonexistent ethnic extermination. The pictures were from Congo and depicted victims of the conflict with M23 rebels as reported by Reuters

A gesture that has the unbelievable and shakes the foundations of international diplomacy. On Wednesday, in the Oval Office of the White House, U.S. President Donald Trump presented South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa with shocking images that he said would testify to a “white genocide” taking place in the African country. Too bad those pictures were fake. Or rather, authentic but totally out of place in that context: they were in fact images taken in the Democratic Republic of Congo, during humanitarian operations that followed bloody clashes with M23 rebels.

“These are white farmers murdered in South Africa,” Trump allegedly declared, waving printed copies of articles accompanied by dramatic photos. But the reality is quite different: as confirmed by the Reuters news agency – the original author of the material – those images are taken from a video shot in Goma last February, during the collection of corpses of civilian victims of the conflict with the Rwandan-backed rebels.

A deliberate forgery, or at least a baffling levity for a head of state. The episode not only casts an ominous shadow over the credibility of the Trump administration, already on edge for so many of its over-the-top demonstrations, it also risks triggering serious tensions between the United States and South Africa but beyond. Ramaphosa, visibly displeased, branded the allegations as “infamous and unfounded.”

This is not the first time Trump has ridden on the “white genocide” theory in South Africa, a narrative dear to the international far right, lacking serious corroboration and repeatedly debunked by independent observers. But bringing it to the table at an official meeting, manipulating the evidence with images from a completely different context, marks a point of no return in the rhetoric of presidential disinformation.

Grave, beyond any acceptable standard, for the leader of the world’s largest power to resort to such manipulation in a diplomatic venue. A gesture that undermines international trust, delegitimizes the U.S.’s role as global mediator and, above all, offends the real victims of African conflicts – used as a propaganda tool without respect, without truth, without shame.