Fact-check: Has the UN issued an alert on organ trafficking? No, it’s fake

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This alert is not available on the official website of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. The United Nations denies having issued it.

By Ochaya Jackson

A United Nations document alerting the public on organ trafficking in the Middle East countries on social media is not true. 

The document indicated that the black market for human body parts in Middle East is in high demand, and warned the public of fake jobs offer abroad in which they murder the victims and remove organs from their bodies to be sold in the black market.

“The black market for parts of the human body is booming in  the Middle East. A kidney now costs 262,000 dollars (131 million CFA Francs); the heart costs 119,000 dollars (60 million CFA Francs) and liver costs 157,000 dollars (79 million CFA Francs). Beware of the fake foreign agencies promising to make you work abroad. They process your paper, pay your plane ticket, and just take you abroad pretending they want to find you a job, but instead, they kill their victims, recover all the precious parts of their bodies”, the document reads.

The document bears the claimed link to the website of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

When one clicks on the link claimed in the document, it returns an error message “the page or document requested is not available”.

Additionally, there is no any related document alerting about organ trafficking on the UN office on drugs and crime website.

A fact-check by PesaCheck in March 2021 on the same document found out that the alert was false.

Furthermore, the archived statement on organ trafficking on the website of UNODC covering from 2017 until August 2022 said that the need for transplantation of healthy organs into those who have failed organs have increased as such illicit means are being used to harvest human organs.

Screenshot of archived webpage

On March 10, 2021, UNODC Pakistan spokesperson Rizwana Asad told AFP that the claim was false and not shared by the UN.

AFP Fact-check states that the purported alert was first published on Facebook on March 2, 2021.

211 Check investigated an alleged United Nations alert warning the public about organ trafficking in the Middle East and discovered it to be FALSE.

Fact-check: The minister of finance and planning, Dier Tong not suspended

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Although social media declared him suspended, Dier Tong, the minister of finance and planning, is still in office.

By Ghai Aketch

News making the rounds on Facebook and WhatsApp allege that the sitting minister of finance and planning Dier Tong was suspended on 21 September 2022. 

“…Hon. Dier Tong suspended,” partly reads the headline of a Facebook post shared on September 21, 2022.

The post claimed that the finance minister was formally served with a suspension letter awaiting for further investigation to be conducted on Friday that week by a joint security Committee tasked by the office of the president.

Screenshot of the Facebook Post claiming that Dier Tong has been suspended

Is minister Dier Tong really suspended? 211 Check finds out:

Normally, the president announces public committees through the state-owned South Sudan Broadcasting Corporation. Mainstream media would have covered the story, which is never the case with this claim.

When contacted by 211 Check on September 28, 2022, an official at the finance and planning ministry communications department,  Maal Maker said the claim is not true and that the minister was performing his ministerial duties. 

“That is not true. Hon. Dr. Dier is doing his assignment as always,” he told 211 Check in a message reply.

In a statement the same week amidst the suspension allegations, the minister of finance and planning in an assuring tone said he was currently in his office performing his duties and was under no investigation whatsoever.

Corruption scandal claims:

A corruption scandal involving the current Finance Minister, Hon. Dier Tong, was widely reported on social media the same week, just hours before the allegations of suspension. Dier Tong was accused of wiring 15 million US dollars from the government to a personal account at the Ugandan National Bank. 

These corruption allegations were later dismissed by Dier Tong as reported by Eye Radio as unfounded.

“I was aware when I was honored with the responsibility of the Ministry of Finance and Planning that I would be facing pernicious resistance from those benefiting from the inherent weakness in our public finance system. I shall therefore, not be deterred or intimidated…” Hon. Dier Tong was quoted in his statement.

Conclusion:

Claims that the minister of finance and planning, Dier Tong has been suspended are false. A statement from his office confirms that the minister is performing his ministerial duties.

Fact-check: These photos, allegedly of a bride running out of a church, are not taken in Juba

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The Facebook post featuring the images of a bride who appears to be fleeing her wedding and were not taken in Juba. The photos are of a bride who was seen running from her wedding in Nigeria, but no one knows what really happened.

By Jibi Moses

A claim by Juba South Sudan, that a bride ran out of the church in Juba on Monday this week after discovering that the man (Lualdit) doesn’t work for an oil company as he claimed is false.

Juba South Sudan, is an online page with a category of travel and transport. The page has 44,000 followers and over 40,000 likes.

On Monday, 26 September 2022, the page posted pictures of what looks like a bride and some people running after her seemingly to convince her to come back to church.

The pictures were captioned: “A bride runs out of church today in Juba after discovering that the man (Lualdit) doesn’t work in an oil company as he claimed. Kalam de wosulu.” The post attracted over 1,000 interactions, 823 comments and over 60 shares.

The photos that were allegedly taken in Juba on Monday.

A reverse image search of the photos shared in the Facebook post indicated that the photos were infact first shared on 15th August 2016 and were traced to the Eket Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State in Nigeria.

The article associated with the image claimed that the bride ran away after she discovered the husband to be wasn’t an employee at Chevron as he had earlier claimed.

The photo was shared widely in 2016 by various websites. The photo once again surfaced in August 2021 with the same claim. 

This Nigerian website once again carried the same story but did not specify which date the incident occurred.

In September 2021 a Kenyan blogger shared the same picture of a bride running away while being followed seemingly by a bridegroom on his Facebook page with a description that a Kilifi woman ran away from her wedding after learning that the boyfriend is a taxi driver and not an employee of Kenya Commercial Bank .This was fact checked by John Mbati of Kenya.co.ke.on 23rd  Sept 2021 and the claim was dismissed as false.

A screenshot of the article by Kenyans.co.ke showing the same pictures after they were fact-checked.

In all the above articles the claim was first reported by a Facebook user Sunday Ikemefula, he says the bride ran out of the church after discovering that the groom is not a chevron staff as he claimed to be, he lied to her. According to the post it happened in Eket, Akwa Ibom State Nigeria. 

Conclusion:

211 Check has found out that the Facebook post featuring the image of a bride who appears to be fleeing her wedding and was taken in Juba to be false. The photos are of a bride who was seen running from her wedding in Nigeria, but no-one knows what really happened.