Key Facts

• The viral video shows detained men with their hands tied, but its meaning has been misrepresented online.
• Islamophobic accounts shared the video claiming it showed Muslims enslaving Black Christian Africans.
• The video originally appeared in May on a local Congolese news outlet's account, reporting arrests in eastern DR Congo.
• The men were arrested in the Kunda area on suspicion of connections to armed groups, though this is not confirmed.
• The arrested individuals were mostly young agricultural and mining workers from South Kivu province.
• Local media and a UN peacekeeping station reported no religious motive in the arrests or the event.
• The video was previously debunked by Congo Check, which found the footage unrelated to rebel fighters as some claimed.
• The Bashi ethnic group expressed concerns that the arrests targeted them due to ethnicity, not religion.