Evidence is emerging that widely circulated images depicting atrocities in El-Fasher, Sudan, were generated by artificial intelligence (AI), and not authentic documentation of the conflict. The analysis from the BBC, Deutsche Welle and Agence France Presse has been focused on identifying images and footage that have received viral coverage as evidence of misconduct by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in El-Fasher, as they captured the city from the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).
BBC fact-checkers have identified specific visuals, including one notable image shows armed men with a woman and child, where inconsistencies such as missing shadows and unnatural positioning suggest AI generation. The BBC’s respected ‘BBC Verify’ team explained that the image purported to show the shadows of two men holding guns in front of a woman on the ground holding a young boy. In the background there are scorch marks on the ground, as if to indicate that houses or tents have been torched.
The BBC analysts explained that there are some immediate visual clues which give away that it was made with AI, for example it the shadows of the men are visible, but there are no shadows behind the woman. The BBC also asserted that the AI image being shared has a small watermark in the bottom left with a username. This led them to an Instagram account which first posted an animated version of this same scene. The caption on the post says the scene is AI-generated and the creator describes themselves as a Creative AI Specialist in their profile.
The BBC experts went on to explain that in the animated scene, there are more obvious visual clues of AI generation, like how the woman’s and boy’s arms move through each other in impossible ways. They also ran the image through Google’s deepfake detection tool and it found Google AI generation digital watermarks in the image.
The BBC team involved in the analysis said: “In summary, clear visual anomalies, provenance tracing to non-journalistic accounts, and inconsistencies in publication dates all provide strong evidence that some images and videos circulating under El-Fasher hashtags and headlines were generated by AI or otherwise fabricated—not by eyewitnesses or journalists on the ground.”
Agence France Presse’s Fact Check team came to the same conclusion, detailing that the image of the woman and the child facing imminent death in Sudan is not authentic. In a social media age, where such images are shared at lightning speed, and where not all viewers have the same social media literacy and scepticism, fake images can powerfully distort the narrative around a conflict.
German broadcaster Deutsche Welle came to similar conclusions, describing how fake or misleading videos and images have been repeatedly reposted by social media influencers and activists, sometimes before the reported events actually happened, as evidenced by reverse image searches showing they were originally posted long before key dates in the El-Fasher timeline. Deutsche Welle’s investigation traced a viral video, supposedly of RSF troops threatening a Sudanese mother, to a TikTok upload dated before the fall of El-Fasher, invalidating the claim it depicts those events. Furthermore, analysis of the dialogue reveals the men shown are Sudanese Armed Forces, not RSF, and they do not threaten the woman.
Deutsche Welle fact-checkers found another clip, featuring shadowy soldiers and a cowering woman, was completely AI-generated, corroborated by a watermark and a creator’s public post confirming its origin. Deutsche Welle also pointed out technical inconsistencies such as unmoving shadows and colour shifting consistent with CGI errors.
A European reporter who has been writing about the conflict since it began in April 2023 commented, “It is an ongoing challenge to verify information. For example some of these Sudan images seem propelled out of places like Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. When they gain a momentum on social media, the onus is on traditional media like the BBC, AFP and DW to have their fact-checking teams scrutinise the images. That can take time, and a false narrative has already taken off in the meantime.”
Respected media outlets from three nations – France, the UK and Germany – are cautioning that viral images purportedly from El-Fasher are fake. Their detailed fact checks have revealed visual anomalies common in AI art, they have verified creator admissions, and their reverse searches have exposed misleading timelines. These findings underline the need for careful scrutiny and authentication of purported evidence circulating online concerning the Sudanese conflict. While the tragedy on both sides of the Sudan conflict is undeniable, it is worth keeping in mind, as Deutsche Welle summarised, that some of the most viral content around the conflict doesn’t show what it claims to show.
