A viral Facebook post claiming that the US Embassy sent experts to Kpah Town, in Rivercess County, to conduct a test on rocks discovered in the county is misleading.
The viral post emerged in reaction to the discovery of large rocks on August 25, which locals believed are diamonds.
What is the Claim?
The first Facebook post was initially shared by ELBC Rivercess County Correspondent, Methuselah Gaye in The Costa Show on August 31, 2023.
Journalist Methuselah Gaye claimed: “A US Embassy representative confirmed rocks discovered in Kpa Town, River Cess County as diamonds.”
On September 6, 2023, another Facebook user named Alex Bobby Foley posted in the Fries FM group, claiming that residents in the county had invited experts from Monrovia to test the rock.
What Did We Find?
LVL Fact Checking desk authenticated this claim by reviewing the US Embassy in Liberia official Facebook page but did not find any post related to this claim. We did not also find any US Embassy press release relative to this claim.
To further verify the claim, we contacted the US Embassy via email and they confirmed that the claim is false.
In the response to our fact checker, Robert J. Clarke, Jr., the Strategic Communications Specialist at the U.S. Embassy, stated that the U.S. Embassy would not normally be involved in testing minerals.
Conclusion
Based on the response from the Embassy, we therefore conclude that the claim that the US Embassy in Liberia sent a representative to Kpa Town in Rivercess County who confirmed that the rocks discovered are diamond is incorrect.
The US Embassy said it did not send a representative to Rivercess in any rock testing mission and it would not normally get involved in testing minerals.
This report was developed with the support of Internews through the USAID Media Activity project. The funder has no say in the editorial decision leading to the production of this content.