FALSE: This image showing an injured Somaliland MP is old

The image has been online since 2016.

This post with an image purportedly showing Somaliland lawmaker Barkhad Batun after a fight on 3 September 2024 is FALSE.

The photo shows lawmaker Batun with an injured face.

The Somali text accompanying the post translates to, “Lawmaker Barkhad Batun after today’s headbutt.”

The image was also shared here, here, here, and here.

A fistfight broke out in Somaliland’s parliament in Hargeisa on 3 September 2024 during a debate about the impeachment of legislator Mohamed Abiib.

Video footage showed MPs Barkhad Batun and Jamal Jah fighting while other parliamentarians attempted to separate the two, as seen here, here, here, and here.

A Google Lens reverse image search established that the image in question was initially shared online in 2016.

The image was featured in a 20 December 2016 article by the Warsoor website titled “Details: Unknown people wound the Secretary of Justice Waddani political party.”

Similarly, the Berbera News Today website published the image in a 19 December 2016 article with the headline, “An unidentified group attacked the Justice Secretary of the Waddani Party, Barkhad Jama Batun, and injured him.”

This news article reported that MP Barkhad Batun sustained a head injury during a fistfight in parliament on 3 September 2024. Lawmaker Batuun posted an image of him with a head bandage on 4 September 2024.

PesaCheck has looked into a post with an image purportedly showing Somaliland lawmaker Barkhad Batun after a fistfight on 3 September 2024 and found it to be FALSE.

This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.

By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.

Have you spotted what you think is fake or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content.

This fact-check was written by PesaCheck Fact-Checker Hassan Istiila and edited by PesaCheck senior copy editor Mary Mutisya and chief copy editor Stephen Ndegwa.

The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck’s managing editor Doreen Wainainah.

PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water / sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit pesacheck.org.