A video showing Moïse Katumbi, a Congolese opposition leader and founder of the party Ensemble pour la République, giving a speech in front of a crowd was published on TikTok on October 8, 2026. The publication claims the sequence was filmed on the same day in the city of Goma, North Kivu, which is currently under occupation by the M23. This misinformation suggests that Katumbi recently organized a political rally in this part of the country.
An investigation by Eleza Fact, a fact-checking organization, found that the video did not originate from Goma in October 2026. Using reverse image search with Google Lens, they found several visual matches of the sequence, leading to the identification of the original video and its true context. The video was actually filmed in Mbandaka, in the province of Équateur, where Katumbi had traveled in December 2023 as part of his presidential election campaign.
The original video, published on YouTube by 3MTV Offciel and Nono N’landu, is about five minutes long and indicates that the images were taken during Katumbi's campaign for the 2023 presidential election in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The sequence appears at the third minute and thirty-third second of this original video. A comparison of the two contents shows the same scene, with the same people and the same development, while Katumbi makes exactly the same statements about former President Mobutu.
Additional visual matches were found in articles published by Opinioninfo on December 3, 2023, and MediaCongo, which reported on Katumbi's visit to Mbandaka as part of his electoral campaign. These publications confirm that the scene corresponds to an event organized at that time. The articles describe Katumbi's speech, in which he made several commitments, including the construction of roads and modern stadiums.
More evidence supporting the video's origin in Mbandaka was found in articles published by Netic News and Africa Press in December 2023. These publications also reported on Katumbi's trip to Mbandaka and confirmed that the scene corresponded to an event organized during that period. The accumulation of these correspondences in different media outlets publishing information on the 2023 electoral campaign consolidates the identification of the original sequence.
Meanwhile, Moïse Katumbi is also involved in a judicial affair. According to an article published by Radio France Internationale (RFI) on October 4, 2026, Katumbi is engaged in a dispute with his half-brother, Raphaël Katebe Katoto, before the Court of Cassation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The dispute concerns three residences and two farms located in Haut-Katanga, which Raphaël Katebe Katoto claims.
In conclusion, after verifying the images and comparing them with several previous publications, Eleza Fact concludes that the video showing Moïse Katumbi giving a speech in front of a crowd was not filmed in Goma on October 8, 2026, as claimed by the TikTok publication. The sequence actually comes from Mbandaka in December 2023.
Key points
- - The video of Moïse Katumbi giving a speech was mislabeled as being filmed in Goma on October 8, 2026. - The video actually originates from Mbandaka in December 2023, during Katumbi's presidential election campaign. - Katumbi is also involved in a judicial dispute with his half-brother over properties in Haut-Katanga.
