Circulation of false information connected with footage of a helicopter in Chinko, CAR
A video containing footage of an African Parks helicopter in Chinko, Central African Republic, is being circulated in connection with false information on social media, misrepresenting the location, the identities of the people and the activities appearing in the footage.
African Parks can confirm that this video shows its helicopter conducting a routine resupply mission on December 4th 2021 in Chinko, Central African Republic, which it manages in partnership with the CAR Government. During this mission, the helicopter was transporting Chinko’s transhumance sensitization teams and their supplies within the park, emplacing a team and their supplies in the field while recovering another team from the field. These teams conduct extended sensitization missions on the ground to engage with cattle herders moving through the region seasonally, where they initiate dialogue around Chinko’s location to encourage them to utilize the correct established routes around the park’s perimeter. These sensitization teams are unarmed, clearly marked, and recruited out of the local community in order to provide culturally-sensitive and peaceful engagement with cattle herders to ensure the long-term sustainability of the landscape.