The Prefect of Mambéré Kadéï and a staff member of the NGO Center for the Protection of Children’s Rights (CPDE), both residents of the mentioned city, have completely dismissed the kidnapping event. They have confirmed that such an incident did not occur, specifically in Batouri, in the city of Berberati, located 572 km from Bangui in the Mambéré Kadéï prefecture, situated in the southwest near the border with Cameroon, of which it is one of the three sub-prefectures.
The information was posted on Facebook on June 22, 2022, via the BOZIZE-KNK account, accumulating some likes and shares. The post’s caption claimed: “F: the wife of a teacher kidnapped by her husband’s students in BATOURI…” Be cautious of this post, as it has nothing to do with the Central African Republic; it actually refers to an event in Cameroon.
Why is this information false?
To uncover the truth and separate fact from fiction, the fact-checking editorial team of the Central African Fact-checkers Association (AFC) first contacted Theodore Papillon Malengue, Prefect of the Mambéré Kadéï prefecture, who refuted these allegations, stating, “I have checked, and nothing like this has happened here, so this information is false.”
Then, in a phone conversation with AFC, Caleb Gotia, a resident of Berberati and staff member at the CPDE (Center for the Protection of Children’s Rights), denied having experienced any such event in the city: “This is false information; if such an event had occurred in Berberati, especially in Batouri, we would have been informed in advance; Batouri is a watercourse that serves the population as grazing land, so this is not true.”
The images taken out of context
Moreover, the AFC editorial team verified the authenticity of the image used in this post. A simple reverse image search using verification tools like Yandex revealed that the image has nothing to do with the Central African context. According to an article written by Sébastian Chi Evido and published by Social Infos on June 21, 2021, the event actually took place in Batouri, in the East of Cameroon, where the victim allegedly staged her kidnapping to extort money from her partner.
In summary, this information surfaced just as students in the area were preparing to go on vacation after nine months of the academic year in the Central African Republic.
By Romaric Théophile GBOMANDJI / AFC
Do you find information or images suspicious? Contact our editorial team at 00236 74 02 15 70 / 75 81 61 38 / 75 38 11 73, or email us at [email protected].
