• A Google search links the video to African immigrants who died in a ship accident off the Libyan coast in 2014 while trying to get to Europe.
• Media reports indicate that the bodies were found washed up 30 miles east of Tripoli, the capital of Libya.
A Facebook post with a video shared by the governor of Nairobi, Mike Sonko, claiming to show bodies of Covid-19 victims dumped into the sea is FALSE.
The post reads “some countries throw Covid-19 infected dead bodies into the seas.”
The video is being shared amid reports that governments across the world are facing challenges in managing a steep rise in the number of dead bodies they must handle due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Hundreds of unclaimed bodies were recently buried in a mass grave in New York.
With more than 600,000 cases and over 30,000 deaths as of April 16, the United States has experienced a surge in coronavirus infections and deaths in the past month.
An examination of the video using the InVID video verification tool shows that the clip is linked to a post dating back to 2018, long before the outbreak of Covid-19.
A Google search links the video to African immigrants who died in a ship accident off the Libyan coast in 2014 while trying to get to Europe.
Media reports indicate that the bodies were found washed up 30 miles east of Tripoli, the capital of Libya.
A 2014 report of the same incident carried in the UK’s Daily Mail shows photographs of the rescue and recovery operation in Libya.
Data analysed by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees shows that many African migrants die in their attempt to cross the Mediterranean sea to get to Europe every year.
In July 2019, up to 150 immigrants were reported dead off the Libyan coast while 137 others were rescued when a boat they were travelling in capsized.
PesaCheck has looked into a Facebook post claiming to show a video of dead Covid-19-19 victims dumped into the sea and finds it to be FALSE.
This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.
By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.
Have you spotted what you think is fake news or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content.
This fact-check was written by PesaCheck Fact-Checker James Okong’o and edited by PesaCheck News Editor Enock Nyariki.