A photo from the AFP archives shows FARDC soldiers with the same insignia on their berets.
Closer inspection reveals the word “paix”, French for peace, on the red ribbon.
AFP Fact Check used a French keyword search for “peace motto DR Congo” and found the same logo on the Congolese presidency’s website (archived here).
“Justice – Peace – Work” is the official motto of the DRC.
Congolese military base
AFP Fact Check also confirmed the location in the clip is a government military base.
According to the AFP journalist based in eastern DRC, the video shows a Congolese military base in Mubambiro located approximately 20 kilometres from Goma (archived here).
AFP Fact Check detected a possible location for the base in Mubambiro on Google Maps but could not confirm the findings because the imagery was not recent and showed construction the area.
We contacted Planet, a commercial satellite imagery company, to obtain the latest available photos of the area (archived here) .
A Planet image from March 2, 2024, features significantly more buildings in the area than the older Google Maps version.
Using geolocation techniques, AFP Fact Check confirmed the video was taken on the Mubambiro base.
Visual clues
The person filming appears to be standing in a large open space surrounded by buildings with mountains in the distance.
Two possible locations in the Planet imagery correspond to those clues: square one and square two.
Several visual clues help narrow down the correct one.
At 00’08”, the camera pans to the right. Two other buildings with red roofs come into view.
These red-roofed buildings are located to the northeast of the first square adjacent to rows of uniform buildings.
If the person had been filming from square two, the red roofs likely would have been obstructed.
Two other visual clues rule out the second square.
The camera pans even further right at 00’17’’, showing two more buildings with darker-coloured roofs.
These two buildings are immediately east of square one on the Planet image.
Two seconds later, a standalone structure appears as the person filming pans to the back of the open space.
The corresponding structure is visible to the south of square one on the Planet image.
Moreover, though cloudy, a mountain range is visible behind the row of buildings with dark-coloured roofs seen at 00’03”.
Using Google Earth, AFP Fact Check confirmed that a large mountain range is behind the military base.
AFP Fact Check has debunked other false claims triggered by the conflict in DRC, which you can read about here.