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Images circulating on Facebook pages across Africa purport to show Sudan’s ousted president Omar al-Bashir during his arrest and having his hair cut by fellow prisoners. In fact, the arrest picture has been altered to paste Bashir’s head onto the body of former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo. The haircut photo does show Bashir, but it is an old picture of him attending the Hajj in Mecca. This post from a Nigerian account, containing both of the misleading photos, has been shared more than 1,000 times (as with the other posts mentioned in this blog, we've archived the link to preserve its contents). Screenshot taken on May 3, 2019 shows a widely-shared Nigerian Facebook post Bashir’s three decades of iron-fisted rule came to an end in April when he was ousted by the army following months of protests against him. As reported by AFP here , the 75-year-old was transferred to prison after the army took over. The photo of Bashir getting a haircut was also shared in this Zambian Facebook post which similarly identified the other men as fellow prisoners. Screenshot taken on May 3, 2019 of a Facebook post claiming to show Omar al-Bashir getting a haircut Another post carrying the image was posted on the Kenya Political Forum, a public Facebook group with more than one million members, alongside a similar caption. Screenshot taken on May 3, 2019 of another Facebook post showing Bashir getting his hair cut The image was also shared here , here and here , among other places. Despite the claims that it shows Bashir upon his arrival in prison, however, a reverse image search found that the image appeared in this article on a Sudanese news site, published on June 28, 2017. Screenshot taken on May 3, 2019 shows a 2017 article that used the 'haircut' photo The article talks about a meeting between Bashir and his former aide Taha Othman al-Hussein in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, site of the annual hajj Islamic pilgrimage. According to the caption, the image is an archive photo taken previously, though it does not specify when it was taken. Bashir is known to have made the hajj pilgrimage several times in recent years. From this photo alone it seemed likely that the photo was taken during one of Bashir’s pilgrimages, and certainly that it cannot have been taken upon his recent arrival in prison, as it was already on the internet back in 2017. Further evidence that it was taken during one of his pilgrimages came from this article , showing a photograph of Bashir in a similar situation. This one, published in 2014, shows Bashir cutting the hair of one of his companions in Mecca for the pilgrimage. Screenshot taken on May 3, 2019 of an article that uses a different photo of Bashir in a similar situation It’s unclear if the two pictures were taken on the same day, but if you look at the decor behind Bashir in both photos, it is evident that they were taken in the same building. The backdrop is recognisable as the Al-Marwa site inside the Great Mosque in Mecca. You can see the same distinctive balconies in images of Al-Marwa on Google Maps . A screenshot taken on May 3, 2019 shows one of thousands of pictures of Al-Marwa available on Google Maps The man standing behind Bashir in spectacles is his former aide Taha Othman al-Hussein. Othman was later sacked by Bashir and moved to Saudi Arabia; he is not in prison in Khartoum alongside the former leader. So it’s clearly an old photo. The man circled in red is Bashir's former aide Taha Othman Al-Hussein As for the photo supposedly showing Bashir being arrested while wearing just a white vest, it’s a crude manipulation. Screenshot taken on May 3, 2019 of the crudely manipulated image A reverse image search on Google and Yandex suggested the image was similar to photos taken of former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo during his arrest in 2011. This Youtube video , in fact, captures the arrest. Screenshot taken on May 3, 2019 of a Youtube video showing the arrest of former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo The same men can be seen in the background of both images You can see the same men in the background, including the man in a checked shirt and hat. From this comparison, it’s clear that Bashir’s face was digitally added onto an image of Gbagbo’s body.
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