By: Benedict AbuBakarr Conteh
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| One of the viral AI-generated images is trending on social media platforms, especially Facebook. |
Claim: A photo allegedly shows an aerial view of Kambia in Kambia District, Sierra Leone, and another image shows the Freetown Bus Station.
Verdict: Misleading! Findings reveal that these photos are AI-generated, using Meta AI.
Full Text
A Facebook user, Malik Malik Bah, has shared a photo claiming to be from Kambia, Sierra Leone.
Since it was posted on May 8, 2025, it has attracted 21,000 likes, 278 comments, and 127 shares.
The nature of the post trending has posed mixed reactions from social media users, with some believing it is indeed in Kambia, whilst others think it is not in Kambia and other places as being shared.
One of the commenters, Lamin Kamara, said, “No place like home, my lovely beautiful city Kambia.” Menjor Turay informed users not to believe what the poster said about the image being in Kambia: “Please, my respectable brothers and sisters, stop commenting on his post because he can lie too much.”
Many comments on the post debunked this claim, whilst others believed it is indeed in Kambia.
Similarly, Cotten Tree Talk, with 103,000 followers on its page, shared the same image with a different caption, saying it is the Freetown Bus Station. They shared it on a public group called “The Shukubly,” with 256,000 followers.
Both photos have garnered online traction, with hundreds of shares, comments, and thousands of online reactions. DUBAWA decided to verify the accuracy of the images to determine the particular place(s) or location(s) in Sierra Leone.
Verification
Both images display signs of being AI-generated, including unrealistic lighting and inconsistent shadows, distorted architectural features, and over-smooth or surreal textures in trees, people, and backgrounds.
Searches using Google Lens, Yandex, Bing, and TinEye returned no real-world matches or credible sources, and the images do not appear in any reliable Sierra Leonean tourism or news platform.
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| Screenshot of a Yandix search conducted on the image of Kambia town. |
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| Satellite image showing Freetown Bus Station in Sierra Leone. |
Similarly, the image posts were not attributed to any photographer or media outlet. Stylistically, both match known outputs from Meta AI’s text-to-image generator, often based on prompts like “beautiful African scenery” or “vibrant bus terminal” key phrases or prompts. No official confirmation from the Ministry of Tourism or the Freetown City Council supports the authenticity of the images. Satellite views and verified images of Kambia and the Freetown Bus Station do not resemble the ones in the viral posts.
However, a closer look at the photos shows that they both have Meta AI inscribed, as shown in the bottom right corner. It has an auto-generated inscription on any image made using the Meta AI platform.
Another image shared by Salone Gossip Blog, with a total following of 15,000 on Facebook, surfaced with Kambia as its caption. Since they posted it, it has gained 1,400 likes, 64 comments, and 26 shares on Facebook. But our research proved it is FALSE. It was also AI-generated using Meta AI, as the poster added an emoji to cover the Meta AI label.
Conclusion
The viral images do not depict real locations in Sierra Leone. Instead, they were created using Meta AI and circulated without appropriate captions. Readers should note that sharing AI-generated images as real might mislead the public and undermine factual storytelling without a proper description or label.
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