On his official Facebook page, Promoter Kay Two dismissed the news as fake.

Writer: Christopher Luate Obede

A Facebook post on Dhakdit media alleging that a South Sudanese event promoter named Promoter Kay Two is said to have died the evening of 23 November 2023 with a short illness in Juba teaching hospital is false, 

Dhakdit media, which has around 41 followers and 21 likes on Facebook, captioned a picture of Promoter Kay Two claiming the event promoter had passed away in Juba that evening, “A South Sudan music promoter by name Promota Kay Two has died this evening with short illness in Juba Teaching hospital.”

Promota Kay Two, whose real name is Koryom Awet Alor, is a South Sudanese events guru and the founder of K2 Promotions and Events Company Limited.

Claim Verification:

Koryom Awet Alor, also known as Promoter K2, dismissed the news as fake by sharing a screenshot of the false post.

“Please disregard any news about me. It’s FAKE NEWS, I’m alive and healthy by The grace of God,” he said on his official Facebook page.

Conclusion:

211 Check finds that the Facebook post claiming that South Sudanese event promoter Koryom Awet Alor alias Kay Two died in Juba is false.  According to the evidence here, the music/event promoter is alive. On his official Facebook page, Promoter Kay Two dismissed the news as fake.

A publication under 211 Check’s ‘Fact-check for a pay’ Initiative with Support from the International Fact-checking Network through the BUILD grant.

To ensure accuracy and transparency, we at 211 Check welcome corrections from our readers. If you spot an error in this article, please request a correction using this form. Our team will review your request and make the necessary corrections immediately, if any.

It’s vital to fight misinformation and disinformation in the media by avoiding fake news. Don’t share content you’re uncertain about. False information can harm and mislead people, risking their lives—Fact-check before sharing. For more details, visit https://211check.org/ or message us on WhatsApp at +211 917 298 255. #FactsMatter

No, the tablets mentioned do not contain PPA. It is a compound that was banned years ago.

Writer: Ochaya Jackson

A widely forwarded WhatsApp message warning people about different tablets because they contain ‘Phenyl Propanol-Amide, PPA’, which supposedly causes strokes, is false.

“Avoid these tablets; they are very dangerous: D-cold, Vicks Action-500, Actified, Coldarin, Cosome, Nice, Nimulid, and Cetrizet-D. They contain phenyl Propanol-Amide, PPA, which causes strokes and is banned in the USA,” reads the WhatsApp message.

“Please, before deleting, help your friends by passing it. It might help someone. Forward to as many as you can,” it added.

Screenshot of the WhatsApp message claim forwarded widely in the groups 

The same claim can also be traced to a post by a Facebook user in 2017.

Investigation and Research

A keyword search on Google using the words “Does D-cold contain Phenyl Propanol-Amide” returned many results that show the claim is an old issue that has been fact-checked before. The report also stated that “Phenyl Propanol-Amide, PPA” is not correct; instead, the compound is called “PhenylPropanolamine, PPA.” 

In addition to that, the search results returned a statement issued by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2005 that ordered phenylpropanolamine, or PPA, to be removed from drug products and requested drug companies stop selling products with phenylpropanolamine. 

The FDA, further in the statement, recommended that consumers not use any drug containing PPA and urged them to read drug labels to see if the product has PPA instead of relying on outdated lists of products that may have already been reformulated and no longer contain PPA.

In the same search results, in 2017, the Ayup website published a report about the claim, which confirmed that PPA was no longer in the U.S. markets, citing the risk of stroke in younger women.

The composition of the claimed tablets

Several queries on the Google search engine for each of the claimed tablets found product information associated with the tablets.

According to Apollo Pharmacy – India, D-Cold is formulated to provide relief related to cold symptoms such as blocked noses, headaches, body pain, and sore throats, and its ingredients include paracetamol (500 mg), caffeine (32 mg), and phenylephrine (10 mg).

Vicks Action-500’s package composition includes paracetamol I.P. 500 mg, – Diphenhydramine HCl I.P. 25 mg, phenylephrine HCl I.P. 5 mg, and caffeine (anhydrous) I.P. 30 mg.

The Actifed tablet contains active ingredients called phenylephrine hydrochloride, and the cosome is mainly a combination of chlorpheniramine (antihistamine), phenylephrine (decongestant), and dextromethorphan (cough suppressant).

Both Nise and Nimulid are used to relieve pain and fever, and all of them contain Nimesulide. On the other hand, Cetrizet-D contains cetirizine hydrochloride and pseudoephedrine hydrochloride.

211Check inquired via email to the Swiss Institute of Therapeutic Products if phenylpropanolamine is still being formulated in human medicine, but it said it has been banned for twenty years in Switzerland.

“Phenylpropanolamine has not been authorised in human medicinal products in Switzerland for twenty years,” the Swiss Institute of Therapeutic Products replied. 

Juba-based medical practitioner with Germany Leprosy and TB Relief Association (GLRA), East Africa regional office with operation in South Sudan, Case Thomas Nicholas, told 211 Check via messaging App that phenylpropanolamine was banned due to health risks, and the drugs listed in the claim have no evidence of containing it.

“Phenylpropanolamine is banned in most countries due to [the] increased risk of hemorrhagic stroke to people taking it. There is no evidence that the drugs you listed contain the substance since it’s no longer recommended for use,” said Thomas.

Conclusion

The claim about tablets that contain phenylpropanolamine (PPA) is an old issue being widely forwarded in WhatsApp groups. In 2005, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned the use of phenylpropanolamine by drug or tablet manufacturing companies because of the risk of stroke in young women.

Further, according to the claimed tablets’ product information reviewed by 211 Check reviewed,  none of them contain phenylpropanolamine, or PPA.

This fact check was published by 211 Check with technical support from Code for Africa’s PesaCheck newsdesk through the African Fact-Checking Alliance (AFCA).

To ensure accuracy and transparency, we at 211 Check welcome corrections from our readers. If you spot an error in this article, please request a correction using this form. Our team will review your request and make the necessary corrections immediately, if any.

It’s vital to fight misinformation and disinformation in the media by avoiding fake news. Don’t share content you’re uncertain about. False information can harm and mislead people, risking their lives—Fact-check before sharing. For more details, visit https://211check.org/ or message us on WhatsApp at +211 917 298 255. #FactsMatter.

No, the website claiming to be WHO’s recruitment portal is a scam. The World Health Organization publishes vacancies and manages candidate profiles using the Stellis platform.

Writer: Makur Majeng

A WhatsApp message with a link to this website claiming to be the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recruitment portal is a hoax.

A screenshot of the WhatsApp message with a website link  that claims to be giving jobs 

The website features the United Nations agency’s branding and a form for prospective job seekers to fill out. The form collects an applicant’s essential information, such as name, gender, email, phone number, and country of residence.

A screenshot of the next interface of the website

The interface where they ask for the applicant’s details in the form.

After clicking the “Apply Now” button, a new page opens and supposedly displays the count of submitted applications. Job seekers are then prompted to “validate their name to proceed to the next step.”

“Note! The number of applicants is limited,” the message on the page reads.

Below the message are alleged testimonials from people who have already applied. 

On clicking the “Continue” button, a new page opens on which job seekers are prompted to provide their name and current level of education. “Send” is the next button, and upon clicking it, a new page opens congratulating the applicant for qualifying to work at the WHO.

However, the portal fails to specify the type of job the applicant is applying for. Nonetheless, the page instructs users to share the information with five groups or 15 friends on WhatsApp to access the WHO “Staff Form.”

The last stage where the form asks the applicant to share in five groups or 15 friends.

Following this step, users are informed that their application was successful, and they are promised a confirmation email.

Upon clicking prompts for application status, printing a PDF, or submitting, users are taken to a different phishing website.

Claim Verification:

A Google keyword search using the “WHO recruitment application portal” yielded no credible results or official announcements related to such recruitment.

The purported job offers and their nature resemble phishing scams, hence 211 Check’s decision to investigate the website’s authenticity. Phishing scams collect personal information under the guise of offering rewards or benefits.

Scammers use similar tactics for fraud, enticing users to bogus websites with promises of rewards. Victims are also urged to share the offers.

Notably, there is no information about the recruitment we are fact-checking on the WHO website, its verified Facebook page, Twitter, or Instagram accounts.

The website we are fact-checking has the domain name abancy.com, which is not the legitimate domain of WHO (who. int).

The WHOIS information for the purported recruitment site shows that it was registered on August 28, 2023, in Great Britain – UK (abbreviated as GB).

The whois details of the abancy.com form

A similar WHOIS search of the official WHO website yielded no results. WHO states on its website that it uses a platform called Stellis to publish vacancies and manage candidate profiles.

The URL provided in the WhatsApp message is flagged as phishing, malicious, and malware by VirusTotal, an online tool that assesses suspicious websites.

The UN agency explicitly cautions job seekers against falling victim to scammers and emphasises that it does not engage in lotteries or provide prizes or awards through any digital medium.

“Should you wish to receive job alerts from Stellis, please register through the profile access links as a user/login. Once you’re logged into the system, go to your profile and then to Preferences to activate a job alert and save your job search criteria. You will then receive email alerts when jobs matching your criteria are published,” a message on the WHO website reads.

The official site for the WHO job site

Conclusion:

211 Check has examined a website claiming to be the recruitment portal of the World Health Organisation (WHO), as shared through a WhatsApp message, and found it to be false, a scam, and a hoax.

This fact check was published by 211 Check with technical support from Code for Africa’s  PesaCheck newsdesk through the African Fact-Checking Alliance (AFCA).

To ensure accuracy and transparency, we at 211 Check welcome corrections from our readers. If you spot an error in this article, please request a correction using this form. Our team will review your request and make the necessary corrections immediately, if any.

It’s vital to fight misinformation and disinformation in the media by avoiding fake news. Don’t share content you’re uncertain about. False information can harm and mislead people, risking their lives—Fact-check before sharing. For more details, visit https://211check.org/ or message us on WhatsApp at +211 917 298 255. #FactsMatter

No, the road that was flashed off by flooding was a road between Garissa and Modogashe in Kenya.

Writer: Nancy Ceasar

A Facebook post with a picture of a road halfway washed by rain, purportedly in South Sudan, is false.

The post was shared on November 7, 2023, with a catchy headline, “Chinese-SPLM-IG fake contract. Imagine only one rain.” It attracted comments with differing opinions that prompted 211 Check to investigate. The same pictures were also shared by a different user here.

It should be noted that Chinese companies were contracted to build some South Sudanese highways connecting Juba to the state capitals. 

Claim Verification:

211 Check carried out a Google Search using Google Lens on the picture, and it returned several results as a newly constructed road between Garissa and Modogashe by a Chinese contractor.

Omwamba posted this picture on his X handle on November 6, 2023, titled “The rain has eaten the recently constructed road between Garissa and Modogashe by a Chinese contractor!” 

Similarly, Nykundi shared this post on his X handle on November 6, 2023: “Recently constructed road between Garissa and Modogashe by a Chinese contractor.”

And later, the post was shared by Rodie on X Handle.

Garissa is a town in East Central Kenya. The town is a market centre situated on the Tana River, and its industries process food, beverages, and tobacco products, among others. The news of the road being destroyed by the rain was shared on these sites here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Latest South Sudan Weather

It should be noted that in the last few days, Juba and most parts of the country have been receiving a little bit more rain than expected generally in November, and this has caused some flash floods, as seen in some local news outlets. 1, 2, and 3.

Conclusion: 

211 Check finds the claim that a picture of a half-washed away road allegedly in South Sudan and, therefore, constructed under a contract between SPLM-IG and the Chinese, false; the road that was flashed off by flooding was a road between Garissa and Modogashe in Kenya.

To ensure accuracy and transparency, we at 211 Check welcome corrections from our readers. If you spot an error in this article, please request a correction using this form. Our team will review your request and make the necessary corrections immediately, if any.

It’s vital to fight misinformation and disinformation in the media by avoiding fake news. Don’t share content you’re uncertain about. False information can harm and mislead people, risking their lives—Fact-check before sharing. For more details, visit https://211check.org/ or message us on WhatsApp at +211 917 298 255. #FactsMatter.