Did an image shown to the public by U.S. President Donald Trump during a May 21, 2025 meeting with his South African counterpart in the Oval Office capture a mass burial of "white farmers" in that country? No, that's not true: The image was a screenshot of Reuters footage showing a different country. The recording captured humanitarian workers assisting with burials during an armed conflict in The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X on May 21, 2025. It opened:
In the Oval Office, @POTUS confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa's denial of the shocking treatment his country's white farmers are facing with video evidence.
Watch the video and ensuing discussion in its entirety...
In the video shared in the entry, Trump says (at the 9:01 mark):
These are all white farmers that are being buried...
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot by Lead Stories)
The screenshot in the printout held by Trump, however, did not show South Africa -- it depicted humanitarian workers in the Congolese city of Goma, writes Reuters (archived here) which initially published the video on February 3, 2025:
The footage from which the picture was taken shows a mass burial following an M23 assault on Goma, filmed by Reuters video journalist Djaffar Al Katanty.
Here is a screenshot from the original video report:
(Source: Reuters screenshot by Lead Stories)
The inscription on white jackets worn on top of protective gear reads "Red Cross" in French and displays that symbol of the international humanitarian organization.
The February 18, 2025, Red Cross statement (archived here) on the situation in DRC said:
In Goma, the morgues and hospitals are overwhelmed. Around 190 DRC Red Cross volunteers and a team of coordinators are working tirelessly to recover the bodies left in the streets, take measures to prevent epidemics and give the victims a dignified burial.
As reported by Reuters, the number of bodies awaiting funerals reached 2,000 (archived here) in a week.
Previously, Lead Stories wrote that another Trump's statement from the same meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was incorrect: The U.S. president falsely identified white crosses as a burial site of "white farmers" in South Africa when that was, in reality, a temporary memorial, not a mass grave.
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Other Lead Stories fact checks addressing claims about current events are here.
