Talk:2025 Goma offensive

A news item involving 2025 Goma offensive was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the In the news section on 28 January 2025.

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Erroneous caption

Nothing in the source given for File:Rwandan soldiers in Goma (2).png states or indicates that the Rwandan soldiers are in Goma. Assuming such is irresponsible and peddling unverified assumptions.

If Rwandan troops were captured on camera in Goma, why didn't the captions in the video state this very important detail? This has been alleged by the DRC for years; if the footage finally caught Rwanda red-handed then it would be a major point of the report, at least worthy of a mention.
The footage caption is "Residents in eastern Congo's largest city of Goma are fleeing after Rwanda-back rebels claimed to have captured the regional hub from Congolese forces." Why did the uploader to Wikimedia Commons assume they're accompanying refugees in Goma rather than in Rwanda, where they fled to?

Yue🌙 20:36, 27 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The original source is AFP. The photo shouldn't even be on Wikimedia projects in the first place. Yue🌙 20:43, 27 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Yue: The VOA source I used had AFP watermarks for every video except the for the 3 I uploaded so I assumed that they were VOA's work. Thanks for pointing out that they did indeed come from AFP. I've removed the images since they'll be deleted on commons. PizzaKing13 (¡Hablame!) 🍕👑 21:06, 27 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@PizzaKing13: It is poor practice to make assumptions and to not carefully check your sources. From the description of the AFP video:

"In the border post of Gisenyi, Rwanda, hundreds, including non-essential UN staff are fleeing the fierce fighting in the besieged Democratic Republic of the Congo city of Goma, after advancing fighters from the M23 armed group and Rwandan troops entered the regional capital."

Imagine if a news outlet was also careless and began reporting the video as depicting Rwandan soldiers in Goma because they used Wikipedia as a reference (which has happened before). One careless mistake and Wikipedia will be embroiled in another controversy about fake news. This event is an extremely sensitive topic; editors cannot afford to make mistakes. Yue🌙 00:48, 28 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It is understandable because Goma and Gisenyi are effectively a single continuous city with an international border running through it. Goma Airport is merely a few minutes walk from the Rwandan border. Roger (Dodger67) (talk) 07:49, 31 January 2025 (UTC)[reply]