Social media posts shared an old video of a cargo ship sinking with a false claim that it shows a Burmese naval vessel reportedly sunk by rebels following their clashes with the military in February 2024. The video was originally published in 2020 and shows a tilted South Korean vessel off the coast of Brazil after it sustained damage on route to China.
“Burmese military’s navy ships after it was attacked by the Arakan Army near Ah Pauk Wa village in Kyauktaw township, Rakhine state on February 7 to 8, 2024,” reads the Burmese-language post shared on February 12, 2024.
The video, which has been viewed more than 300 times, shows a capsized carrier, with russet liquid heavily spouting out of it as it submerges deeper in the water.
The video circulated online as the local news outlets reported on February 8 that the Arakan Army sank two naval assault ships and a naval ferry in Kyauktaw township in western Myanmar (archived link).
Arakan Army (AA), founded in 2009, has fought an on-off war for years seeking for more autonomy for the state’s ethnic Rakhine population (archived link).
They are part of the Northern Alliance group with the KIA, Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), and Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) — ethnic armed groups raging war with the Burmese military for autonomy in the northern regions.
Myanmar plunged into turmoil following a military coup in February 2021, with violent crackdown against dissent and mass protests spread throughout the Southeast Asian nation.
Three years on, the junta is struggling to crush widespread armed opposition to its rule and recently suffered a series of stunning losses to an alliance of ethnic minority armed groups.
The video has been shared with similar claims on Facebook here, here, and here.
However, the video does not show the sunken Burmese combat vessels in 2024, but a South Korean ship which ran aground in a maritime accident from 2020 off the coast of Brazil.
Old footage from Brazil
Reverse image search followed by keywords search on Google led to this YouTube video posted on June 21, 2020 with the title that reads, “Stellar Banner” (archived link).
The video’s description reads, “gone in two minutes!!”
Below is the screenshot comparison of the video from the false post (left) with the YouTube video (right):
The Stellar Banner, a VLOC (very large ore carrier) class vessel, was carrying 300,000 metric tons of iron ore from Brazil to China in February 2020, when it struck an object and began taking on water.
The crew members were quickly evacuated, while the captain maneuvered the ship to rest on a sandbar.
AFP also published a photo of the sinking ship, which was credited to the Brazilian Navy, on their website on February 27, 2020.
Parts of the captions read: “Handout photo released by the Brazilian Navy of South Korean ship “MV Stellar Banner”, loaded with mining ore, stranded 100 kilometres off the northeastern coast of Brazil, after leaving the Ponta de Madeira ternial in Sao Luis, Maranhao, on February 27, 2020.”
Below is a screenshot comparison of the video from the false post (left) and the photo published on AFP’s website (right), with similarities highlighted by AFP:
The ship in the 2020 incident differs from the vessels which the Arakan Army have reportedly sunk in terms of size and features.
Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo released by the Arakan Army of the military ship (left) to the South Korean ship that sank off the coast of Brazil (right):
Three months after the initial incident, the stranded South Korean ship was eventually scuttled off the coast of Maranhao, after its load had been removed (archived link).
The article also includes a video of the ship sinking taken from a different angle.
AFP had previously debunked claims related to clashes in Myanmar involving ethnic rebel groups here and here.