PARTLY FALSE: This photo isn’t  of a ship carrying weapons to Somalia in September 2024

The image was initially published in April 2024.

This Facebook post with an image purportedly showing a ship carrying weapons docking at Mogadishu port in September 2024 is PARTLY FALSE.

The post reads: “Breaking: A ship with a weapons shipment for Somalia is docked at Mogadishu port, and the unloading is ongoing. The weapons are being transferred to a storage facility owned by the Somali Federal Government.”

“These weapons are part of the shipments received by the Somalia Federal Government, provided by countries supporting Somalia in the security sector. However, this includes weapons purchased from Egypt, with a portion contributed by Egypt. There is no reference regarding how the previously arrived weapons were used, and some of them have fallen into the hands of terrorist groups, as stated by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud.”

“The street linking Mogadishu Airport to the Ministry of Defence is closed, and the first transport carrying the weapons has just arrived in the area designated for storage.”

The image was shared a month after Egypt and Somalia signed a defense pact to bolster security cooperation, prompting Egypt to deliver its first military aid to Somalia in over four decades in August 2024.

To verify the authenticity of the image, Puntland Mirror conducted a Google reverse image search and found that the picture is not of a ship carrying weapons to Somalia in September 2024, as seen here and here.

The image is of a Turkish navy ship docked at Mogadishu port in April 2024, as also published here and here.

As seen here, here and here, the media reported that a warship from Egypt carrying weapons arrived in Mogadishu on 23 September 2024, hours after the claim was made.

Puntland Mirror examined a Facebook post with an image purportedly showing a ship carrying weapons docking at Mogadishu port in September 2024 and found it to be PARTLY FALSE.

This fact-check was produced by Puntland Mirror under the African Fact-Checking Incubator programme, with support from PesaCheck, Code for Africa’s fact-checking initiative, and the African Fact-Checking Alliance(AFCA).