Back to Africa Check

No, photo of rivers merging without mixing from Georgia, not anywhere in Africa

A dramatic photo shared widely on Facebook appears to show two rivers flowing into one another at the foot of a mountain, without the waters of the rivers mixing. 

Some users sharing the photo claim it shows the “Kasai and Mai-Ndombe rivers” in Kwango province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or DRC. Others say it shows the rivers Orashi and Ogbuide in Nigeria.

According to information recorded by the Freshwater Ecoregions of the World, an ecoregion map, “Lake Mai Ndombe connects with the Lukenie-Fimi River, which joins with the Kasai and eventually flows into the Congo River”. 

In other words, “Mai Ndombe” is the name of a lake, not a river. So is any of the information shared with the photo true? We checked.



Rivers in country of Georgia, south of Russia


A Google reverse image search leads to a website offering guided tours of the country of Georgia, which borders the eastern end of the Black Sea, south of Russia.

The widely circulated photo is in fact of a Georgian tourist attraction, the confluence of the Tetri Aragvi (“White Aragvi”) and the Shavi Aragvi (“Black Aragvi”) rivers. 

This is in the village of Pasanauri, about 90 kilometres north of Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, and far from either the DRC or Nigeria.Grace Gichuhi




 

Republish our content for free

We believe that everyone needs the facts.

You can republish the text of this article free of charge, both online and in print. However, we ask that you pay attention to these simple guidelines. In a nutshell:

1. Do not include images, as in most cases we do not own the copyright.

2. Please do not edit the article.

3. Make sure you credit "Africa Check" in the byline and don't forget to mention that the article was originally published on africacheck.org.

For publishers: what to do if your post is rated false

A fact-checker has rated your Facebook or Instagram post as “false”, “altered”, “partly false” or “missing context”. This could have serious consequences. What do you do?

Click on our guide for the steps you should follow.

Publishers guide

Africa Check teams up with Facebook

Africa Check is a partner in Meta's third-party fact-checking programme to help stop the spread of false information on social media.

The content we rate as “false” will be downgraded on Facebook and Instagram. This means fewer people will see it.

You can also help identify false information on Facebook. This guide explains how.

Add new comment

Restricted HTML

  • Allowed HTML tags: <a href hreflang> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote cite> <code> <ul type> <ol start type> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <h2 id> <h3 id> <h4 id> <h5 id> <h6 id>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
limit: 600 characters

Want to keep reading our fact-checks?

We will never charge you for verified, reliable information. Help us keep it that way by supporting our work.

Become a newsletter subscriber

Support independent fact-checking in Africa.