Social media pages and accounts shared pictures claiming to display the recent arrest of an Egyptian man in Sudan for smuggling a large amount of counterfeit Sudanese currency. The images show a significant amount of seized currency, alongside men in military attire and civilians, including those who appear to be journalists. The accompanying comments state that an Egyptian man was loading his truck with counterfeit currencies, worth over two trillion Sudanese pounds. However, these images were actually published years ago to report on a currency counterfeiting network in South Darfur. The post was labelled as “urgent,” indicating recent events, but no reliable source corroborates this claim. The images are not recent either, as they date back to March 2020 and showed the seizure of a counterfeiting currency gang in South Darfur. Local reports at the time stated that the counterfeit network had two billion Sudanese pounds in its possession. The post gained numerous likes and comments on social media but lacks credibility.
Pages and accounts on social media shared pictures that they said showed the recent arrest of an Egyptian man in Sudan who was smuggling a huge amount of counterfeit Sudanese currency.
The photos show what appear to be very large amounts of seized currency, among a number of men in military clothes, and civilians, including some who appear to be journalists.
The accompanying comments stated, “The arrest of an Egyptian loading his truck with counterfeit currencies, more than two trillion Sudanese pounds.”
However, these photos were, in fact, published years ago, as to control a network of counterfeiting currencies in South Darfur.
The post was accompanied by the phrase “urgent”, which means that the alleged incident took place recently.
The post with this claim garnered hundreds of posts and thousands of comments on social media from Facebook and Twitter.
However, what was mentioned in the publication regarding the arrest of an Egyptian currency counterfeiter in Sudan in recent days was not published by any reliable website or source, according to AFP journalists in Khartoum.
On the other hand, searching for images on search engines showed that they were published on Sudanese social media pages years ago, which denies that they are recent, as the publications said.
The oldest copies found by AFP journalists date back to March 2020. Their publishers said at the time that they showed the seizure of a counterfeiting currency gang in the state of South Darfur, located in southwestern Sudan.
In that month, local websites reported the seizure of two billion Sudanese pounds in the possession of a currency counterfeiting network in that region.
In conclusion, the photos circulating on social media claiming to show the recent arrest of an Egyptian man in Sudan for smuggling counterfeit Sudanese currency are not accurate. These photos were actually published years ago and were related to a previous incident of currency counterfeiting in South Darfur. It is important to fact-check and verify information before sharing it on social media to avoid spreading misinformation. It is crucial to rely on reliable sources and not fall for sensationalized and unverified claims on social media.
