Claim: A viral video shows mass graves of people buried alive, with their hands protruding upwards, in Sudan.
Fact: The video has been generated using artificial intelligence (AI) tools. However, several news outlets report evidence of actual mass graves in Sudan.
In late June 2026, multiple Facebook posts shared a video apparently showing mass graves of people buried alive, with their hands protruding upwards, in Sudan.
Screenshot of the viral claim
The Sudan conflict
A civil war has been going on in Sudan since 15 April 2023. It is an ongoing power struggle between the government-backed Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), which are led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which are commanded by Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo.
The two generals had previously partnered to orchestrate a military coup d’état in 2021 that ousted Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok; however, their alliance collapsed over transitional plans towards civilian rule, especially over the timeline and command hierarchy to integrate the RSF into the army.
The RSF has seized control of much of the western Darfur region and parts of Kordofan, while the SAF retains control over eastern, northern, and central parts of the country.
The war has triggered the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis. Over 14 million people have been forced from their homes, including over four million who have fled to neighbouring countries. Approximately 25 million people — over half of Sudan’s population — face acute food insecurity, with famine conditions confirmed in areas of Darfur and Kordofan.
Human rights groups and international bodies have documented widespread, systematic atrocities, including ethnically targeted violence, mass killings, and sexual violence primarily attributed to the RSF and its allied militias.
A United Nations (UN) fact-finding mission in its 19 February 2026 report found “hallmarks of genocide in El-Fasher”.
In all this conflict, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has served as the primary external patron of the RSF, with extensive documented evidence of Emirati supply lines routing weapons, fuel, and funding to the paramilitary forces.
Reports have also exposed UAE-based security networks recruiting foreign mercenaries to train and fight alongside the RSF. Though the Emirati government officially denies the allegations — claiming its involvement is strictly humanitarian — the Sudanese government has initiated formal legal action against Abu Dhabi.
Justice Minister Abdullah Dirif announced in July 2026 that Sudan is “preparing new legal action” against the UAE for “supporting” the RSF and “seeking accountability for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide committed during the country’s conflict”.
Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), a rights group founded by assassinated journalist Jamal Khashoggi, has called for the UN General Assembly and member states to “impose an immediate arms embargo” on the UAE over “its central role in supporting genocide in Sudan and grave human rights violations across the region”.
Evidence of multiple mass graves
The Associated Press (AP) reported in May 2026 that “hastily buried bodies litter the city” in Khartoum after, according to the director general of the state’s forensic medicine department, Dr Hisham Zienalabdien, the RSF “forbade people from burying bodies in cemeteries”.
“Tens of thousands remain buried in mass graves”, according to an April 2026 report in The Los Angeles Times, which also quoted Dr Zienalabdien as saying he saw “detainees, bound and executed”. He told the publication that around “23,000 corpses” have been found since July 2025 and collected from around the city before being reburied in cemeteries.
Anadolu Agency said in January 2026 that two mass graves were found in Khartoum and both contain “thousands of people” who were “buried in a haphazard manner”. More were also “uncovered in Sudan’s Al-Hilaliya”, according to TRT World.
The RSF also conducted a campaign from 26 October to 28 November 2025 to remove “evidence of mass killings in el-Fasher, North Darfur”, a report by the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) revealed, according to Al Jazeera and DW News.
The HRL’s findings were also referenced by the BBC Verify, which “obtained satellite imagery from Vantor … to confirm Yale’s work showing ground being dug, white objects at the site the next day, and black smoke emerging from the area a few days later”.
The Sudan Doctors Network also issued a statement in November 2025 on the RSF’s campaign to hide the evidence, terming it a “full-fledged genocide”, according to Anadolu Agency.
In a March 2025 exclusive report, The Guardian said it visited a former RSF base north of Khartoum, nearby which was a “secret mass grave” — at least 550 unmarked graves — containing the bodies of those who “may have been tortured or starved to death”.
Prior to that, in December 2023, CNN reported that the United Nations Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO) “received reports of at least 13 mass graves in the Sudanese city of El Geneina”, the rights body’s former Special Representative for Sudan, Volker Perthes, confirmed. The deceased were believed to be “civilians from the ethnic Masalit tribe who were killed in attacks” perpetrated by the RSF and “allied Arab militias”.
Yet another mass grave, containing “the bodies of at least 87 ethnic Masalit and others”, reportedly killed by the RSF in West Darfur, was found in El-Geneina, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a July 2023 statement, citing “credible information”. The paramilitary group “denied any involvement”, arguing that it “was not a party to the conflict in the state, according to a Reuters report.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check observed multiple hands either distorted or merging into one another at different points in the video. Moreover, they also appear right at the top of the graves, indicating incorrect position as they would, if the clip was authentic, be nearer to the chests than the heads. They are also the same height and skin tone, indicating synthetic creation.
Furthermore, we noticed that three standing human figures appear in the background but the one in the middle has a distorted body.
We also came across an X (formerly Twitter) post, wherein the user observed that “one of nature’s fundamental laws” is that “wherever there is a dead animal or flesh, kites, crows, vultures, flies, and stray animals arrive within minutes or hours”.
“If a scene depicts numerous corpses lying in the open without a single bird or insect in sight, it is clearly a fake or staged scene,” they noted.
We then decided to run the video through AI detection tools, such as Hive Moderation, NVIDIA Synthetic Video Detector, TruthScan’s Enterprise AI Video Detection Analysis, DetectVideo AI, and UncovAI.
Hive Moderation said, “Overall, the video is likely not to be AI-generated”, with an aggregated score of 45.1%.
Results from Hive Moderation
According to the NVIDIA Synthetic Video Detector, the video is “synthetic”, with a probability of 31.5%, which is “greater than threshold (30%), meaning it’s likely synthetic or AI-generated”.
Results from NVIDIA Synthetic Video Detector
TruthScan’s Enterprise AI Video Detection Analysis said the clip is AI-generated, with a probability of 67% and “medium” confidence level.
Results from TruthScan’s Enterprise AI Video Detection Analysis
According to DetectVideo AI’s analysis, “no strong AI-generation indicators detected” with “high confidence”. It provided a likelihood of the content being AI-generated as 47%, with 53% uncertainty.
Results from DetectVideo AI
Moreover, UncovAI said the video is AI-generated with a confidence level of 95% but the audio is likely to be human with a 100% certainty.
Results from UncovAI
Due to the diverse results, Soch Fact Check also ran the video through Global Online Deepfake Detection System (GODDS), a tool developed by Northwestern University’s Security & AI Lab (NSAIL) that uses a combination of various models along with human analysis to provide a holistic summary of the results.
GODDS used seven deepfake detection algorithms for the visual content and 70 for the audio component, while two trained analysts also examined the clip.
All predictive models for the visual and audio content said the video “is likely to be fake”:
- The video is likely to be fake with a probability below 0.5, according to all predictive models.
- The audio is likely to be fake with a probability above 0.5, according to 55 of the 70 predictive models; it is likely to be fake with a probability below 0.5, according to the 15 remaining predictive models.
According to GODDS’ human analysts, the video contains “several indicators” that show it may be artificially manipulated via AI. For example:
- 0:06-0:08: The hands appear to blur together.
- 0:10: The hands appear to blend into the background.
They added, “The artefacts are largely obscured by poor video quality, despite the majority of the video’s features remaining detailed and clear. It is difficult to discern possible artefact manipulation because of the poor video quality. It is plausibly explainable by other factors such as motion blur as well.”
Markers of AI-generated content
The analysts also noted that fact-checking organisations such as AFP — which is accredited by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) — and Misbar have both debunked the media as digitally altered.
“The original content uploader of this media, [Facebook group] ‘Crazed AI’, has posted numerous videos that appear to be AI-generated without independent corroboration or cross-references. This pattern raises concern about the account’s reliability. Additionally, this artefact shares the same visual components as another video, which was posted on 26 February,” they said.
Among the rules mentioned in the Facebook group ‘Crazed AI’ is that the posts should be “only AI images/videos”.
When we scoured the Misbar article, we found that they traced the video to a 22 February post by Facebook page ‘On This World’, a “digital creator” that posts “AI VIDEOS”, according to its Intro section.
Testing the February video in Hive Moderation yielded a probability of 100% of it being AI-generated.
Results from Hive Moderation
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that the video is not authentic, but AI-generated.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the video shared over a dozen times on Facebook.
A Threads post received more than 100 reactions.
The clip was also shared at least thrice on X, where one of the posts was viewed upwards of 8.4 million times.
Conclusion: The video has been generated using AI tools. However, several credible news outlets have found evidence of mass graves in Sudan.
Background image in cover photo: Wikimedia Commons
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