MARY ALEXANDER • 30 APRIL 2024
Published by Africa Check on 3 May 2024

“On the same day of the Solar Eclipse ( 8th of Apr 2024), The powers that be have chosen to re – activate the CERN hydron collider,” reads a post on a Facebook group page in Uganda.*

It adds: “This hydron collider does not only collide atomic particles but it also opens portals to the demonic realm.”

As proof of its claim, the post links to a TikTok clip from footage of a performance that includes dancers, a military band and a huge video display.

The clip is headed “GOTHARD TUNNEL OPENING CEREMONY”. Text below reads: “OPENING THE GATES OF HELL?”

Under that is the logo of Cern, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, with an equal sign connecting it to 666. This is the “number of the beast”, taken from the Christian bible’s book of Revelation and associated with the antichrist and the devil.

The performance is peculiar, but a voiceover tries to explain. It says the display shows the “opening of some kind of portal”. A dancer wearing what looks like a goat’s head with long curved horns is “the goat man, or Satan”.

This and other videos of the performance have been circulating on social media in South Africa, Nigeria and elsewhere in April 2024, with similar claims. They include:

• CERN is where Science meets magic meets religion meets satanism.
• Just so you can see the satanic agenda … with them planning on switching CERN on this April 8th …
• CERN is owned and controlled by Zionist Jews.
• Why would they perform a “bride of Baphomet” séance while opening a scientific lab machine that tries to recreate the “God particle”?

The claim can also be seen here, here, here and here.

What is Cern?

Cern is a multinational physics organisation that straddles the border of France and Switzerland in Meyrin near Geneva, the Swiss capital. It was set up in 1954 to look into the fundamental particles that make up the universe. Its focus is pure science, research that looks into the reasons for things without any immediate real-world application.

One of its projects is the Large Hadron (not hydron) Collider (LHC), the world’s biggest and most powerful particle accelerator. Inside this 27-kilometre ring of superconducting magnets, two beams of particles travelling in opposite directions are brought close to the speed of light. They then collide, releasing other particles for scientists to study.

Cern’s most famous achievement is the 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson, the mass-giving field that allowed stars and planets to form in the early universe. It’s known as the “god particle”.

This has made Cern a target of religious conspiracy theorists. And the huge collider is by necessity underground. This has led some to conclude it’s an entrance to hell.

But is the performance in the viral clips really proof that Cern is “satanic” and a way to hell?

Opening ceremony for railway tunnel through Swiss Alps

A reverse image search of frames from the footage reveals it has nothing to do with Cern.

Instead, it shows the opening ceremony for the Gotthard Base Tunnel through the Swiss Alps mountain range on 1 June 2016. The tunnel cuts through the base of the Gotthard massif chain of mountains in the Alps.

At the time, the US$12-billion, 57-kilometre tunnel was said to be the longest conventional railway tunnel in the world.

The opening ceremony was held at the Rynaecht fairground near the northern entrance to the tunnel in Erstfeld, a town in central Switzerland. Erstfeld is about 207 kilometres in a straight line and 308 kilometres by road from Cern’s headquarters in Meyrin.

The 30-minute performance – seen here, here and here – was created by German theatre director Volker Hesse. Media reports have described it as odd, bizarre, creepy and absolutely insane.

But it was only intended as a celebration of the Gotthard tunnel and the Alps above. The “goat man, or Satan”, for example, was meant to represent the alpine ibex, a wild mountain goat native to the region.

And Cern did not “reactivate” the LHC on 8 April 2024, the day of the total solar eclipse over parts of North America.

Instead, the collider’s 2024 science season started in mid-February after a winter maintenance break. On 8 March, a month before the eclipse, it achieved its first stable particle beams.

* Some claims posted on Facebook and Instagram may have been deleted by users after being rated via Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program.

The post ‘Absolutely insane’ performance at Swiss railway tunnel opening – not satanism at Cern appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 2 APRIL 2024

After a controversial month-long delay, the West African country of Senegal held its presidential election on 24 March 2024.

Two of the 19 candidates – the highest number in the country’s history – led the pack.

One was the ruling Benno Bokk Yaakaar alliance’s Amadou Ba, a former prime minister who outgoing president Macky Sall chose as his successor.

The other was Bassirou Diomaye Faye of the opposition Pastef party. Faye was released from prison just 10 days before the vote. Also released was popular Pastef leader Ousmane Sonko.

The party itself had been dissolved by Senegal’s government in 2023 and Sonko was barred from running. So Faye stepped in.

On 25 March, less than 24 hours after voting stations closed, Ba conceded to Faye. Senegal’s electoral commission had announced that Faye had won 53.68% of the 90% of ballots counted.

The next day, a short video of a man giving a speech in English appeared on social media with the claim he was Faye, saying “it’s time for France to leave Senegal alone”.*

Senegal is a French-speaking country and was France’s oldest African colony until independence in 1960. The two countries maintain strong political and economic ties, and France has an air force base in Dakar, Senegal’s capital.

The video is overlaid with the text: “The next African President is speaking. Even His English is clean than alot of current Presidents in our Continent.” Its captions identify the man as Faye.

The clip begins with the man appearing to say:

It is high time for France to lift its knee off our neck and put an end to this unjust oppression. Centuries of misery, human trafficking, colonialism and neocolonialism have caused immeasurable suffering. It is time to put an end to this cycle of oppression. It’s high time for France to leave us alone.

The video can also be seen here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Faye and his allies have pledged to fight France’s “economic stranglehold” on Senegal. But is the man in the video really Faye, speaking English?

Sonko’s 2021 press conference – in French

The man in the video is clearly Ousmane Sonko, not Bassirou Faye.

Africa Check googled videos using the French keywords “discours d’Ousmane Sonko” – “speech by Ousmane Sonko”.

This led us to a press conference Sonko held in Dakar on 2 July 2021. It was streamed live on YouTube by Senegal7, a local TV news channel.

Sonko’s posture and gestures, his suit, the white background and the Senegalese flag to his right all indicate that the viral video was taken from the live stream.

In the stream, Sonko gives an hour-and-a-half speech on a range of topics – in French. He posted a transcript of the speech, also in French, on his X/Twitter account on the same day.

Not only does the viral video show Sonko, but it has been altered, with English audio replacing Sonko’s original French.

But Sonko did say something similar in his 2021 speech. A machine translation of a part of its transcript reads:

But it is time for France to lift its knee from our necks and do like its European peers (Germany, Italy, Spain, Great Britain, Sweden, the Netherlands, etc.) who are prospering without sucking the blood of the former colonies.

Mais il est temps que la France lève son genou de notre cou et fasse comme ses pairs européens (Allemagne, Italie, Espagne, Grande Bretagne, Suède, Pays-Bas,…) qui prospèrent sans sucer le sang des anciennes colonies.

— Ousmane Sonko (@SonkoOfficiel) July 2, 2021

A six-minute excerpt of the speech was also posted on the Satanal Media YouTube channel, headlined (in French) “It’s time for France to let go of us.”

Faye was inaugurated on 2 April 2024. At 44, he is Senegal’s youngest president yet.

* Some claims posted on Facebook and Instagram may have been deleted by users after being rated via Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program.

Published by Africa Check on 12 April 2024

The post Senegal’s new president Faye telling France to leave his country alone? No, old video of allied politician Sonko with English audio added appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 28 FEBRUARY 2024

“France embassy is set on fire in Democratic Republic of the Congo,” reads the common caption for a TikTok video circulating on Facebook and X/Twitter since 11 February 2024.*

The 29-second clip shows a crowd of people shouting and throwing stones in the street outside a building with a steel gate and high wall topped with blade wire. Smoke rises.

From the 15-second mark, the words “AMBASSADE DE FRANCE” – French for “embassy of France” – can be seen etched into the wall below three light sconces.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the largest country in sub-Saharan Africa, is roughly the size of western Europe. Rich in minerals such as cobalt and copper, it has a long history of conflict and is among the five poorest nations in the world.

Since 1996 an undeclared war led by the M23 rebel group has claimed an estimated 6 million lives in eastern DRC, particularly in the province of North Kivu on the border with Rwanda.

M23 has more recently seized huge swathes of North Kivu and encircled Goma, the province’s capital. The DRC government, the United Nations and the US have accused Rwanda of supporting the rebel group.

In early February 2024 protests erupted outside US, UK and French embassies in Kinshasa, the DRC’s capital. The protestors were demanding that western diplomats either leave or take action against Rwanda for its role in the conflict.

The video’s captions include comments such as:

• I told you the wind of change is sweeping against France in Africa. Watch the space more anger is rising.
• The world is DONE with western imperialism and interventionism.

The claim can also be seen here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

But does the clip really show the French embassy burning during the protests in Kinshasa?

Flags burned, schools closed – but no mention of embassy on fire

Africa Check compared the clip to photos (here, here, here and here) and videos (here and here) of the outside of the embassy.

Its steel gate, blade wire-topped wall and the words “AMBASSADE DE FRANCE” below three light sconces on the wall all show that the scene was filmed outside the Embassy of France complex on Colonel Mondjiba Avenue in Kinshasa.

The video was first posted online on 10 February by the TikTok user @buzz_2kin.

But here there’s no mention of the embassy being on fire. Instead, a machine translation of the post’s French description simply reads: “Total disorder at the French embassy due to war in Goma.” A similar description is overlaid on the video.

And a closer look at the original video reveals that the smoke comes from a pile of burning tyres on the pavement outside the embassy gate. No part of the complex itself – the wall or the buildings behind it – is on fire.

The protests were widely covered by news media across the world from 12 February, the day after the claim about the video first appeared online.

The reports include details: US and Belgian flags were burned, tear gas was used to disperse protestors, international schools were closed and security was stepped up at western embassies in Kinshasa.

But there was no report that the French embassy was set on fire. The claim is false.

* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.

Published by Africa Check on 4 March 2024

The post No, French embassy in DR Congo not ‘set on fire’ during protests – video shows burning tyres appeared first on South Africa Gateway.