By: Benedict AbuBakarr Conteh
Photo from the Post by Malik Malik Bah
Claim: A Facebook post by Malik Malik Bah shows a photograph labelled “we dey fix ya, #Lungi Bridge,” implying that the long-promised Lungi Bridge by the Sierra Leonean government has been completed.
Verdict: False. The image is not the Lungi Bridge in Sierra Leone, but a view of Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana, USA.
Full Text
On June 19, 2025, a Facebook user named Malik Malik Bah posted a photo of a long bridge with the caption: We dey fix ya, Lungi Bridge.
This sparked engagement on the Facebook platform as some users believed it was the Lungi Bridge, while others debunked the claim and demanded that he stop sharing misleading content. See some comments retrieved from the post below:
Mohamed Brain Nyallay “Since when boo u sef u for don lef for dae post em lie lie ya now”
Abibu Saidu “When, false life government”
Malikie Baylay “God bless Prezo and First Lady and the Government of Sierra Leone”
Mohamed Fofanah “Another winning for the great SLPP”
Wise Man “Why salone man nor mean we’ll ba for dis country so if una hate SLPP una nor wish for leh dem do good tin for dis country”
These are just a few of the comments expressed by social media users on Facebook on Malik Malik Bah’s post.
Since the post surfaced online, it has attracted 1,600 likes, 150 comments, and 15 shares on Facebook groups.
The caption and context suggested the image shows the new airport bridge in Sierra Leone. For reference, DUBAWA had previously fact-checked a similar viral Facebook post that also captioned it as “Lungi Bridge, Freetown, Sierra Leone”.
Further checks show that the construction of the Lungi Bridge remains in the planning stage. The Sierra Leonean president, Julius Maada Bio, pledged a bridge to Lungi during his 2018 campaign, as seen in the SLPP Manifesto 2018 on Pages 31 and 89. In June 2019, he opened a tender for a 7 km Freetown–Lungi bridge costing up to $1–2 billion.
However, funding problems and delays persisted, as seen in this Sierraloaded report. A government report noted that in January 2022, the President lamented difficulties financing the project. Again in late 2023, Bio said, “I know I still owe you the Lungi Bridge,” 40 Acres Canada reported. Only very recently, on June 19, 2025, did Sierra Leone sign a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the US firm, Acrow, to finally finance and build the bridge, the Calabash Newspaper reported. Our researcher observed that the MoU ceremony was held the same day Malik posted the image on Facebook, though the construction is yet to take off.
In our effort to amplify truth and promote a safe and better social media-friendly environment, DUBAWA decided to fact-check this claim to ascertain whether it is true or another misleading content shared by this user, as most of his posts have been debunked on other credible platforms, including DUBAWA.
VERIFICATION
When the image was subjected to a Google reverse image search, the photo in Malik Malik Bah’s post matches U.S. Louisiana’s Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, and not any location in Freetown, Sierra Leone. DUBAWA’s analysis of a similar viral “Lungi Bridge” image published in May 2025 found that it was entirely fabricated or possibly AI-generated. It noted explicitly that “Lungi Bridge is not being constructed in Freetown or anywhere in the country”. Likewise, a senior Sierra Leone official at the Ministry of Works and Public Assets, Paul Buckarie, Chief Director, told DUBAWA the photo was false. Government sources and media have no records of a completed bridge at Lungi.
As of 30th of June 2025, the Lungi Bridge project is still an ongoing project whose construction is yet to start.
By contrast, many publicly available photos show the same bridge over Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans. For example, Wikimedia Commons and other photo archives identify the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana, a pair of parallel bridges across the lake.
Image showing Lake Pontchartrain in Louisiana, United States. CREDITS: flicker.commons.wikimedia.org
The skyline, water horizon and roadway signs in Malik’s image matches those of Lake Pontchartrain. One Wikimedia caption reads: “Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, Louisiana.” The presence of typical U.S. road signs (e.g. “PASS WITH CARE” and “Wrong Way”) also confirms that the location is Louisiana, U.S., and not Sierra Leone. In short, the photograph shows American infrastructure (the Pontchartrain Causeway), not any Sierra Leonean bridge project.
Also, this fact-checker's reverse image search via Google, Bing, Yandex, and TinEye shows that it is not in Sierra Leone. Results show that the image has been falsely used to indicate multiple places, as seen below:
Screenshot showing a Google Reverse Image search matches that of the Facebook image posted by Malik, noting that it has been in existence since 1 years ago online
A Google Earth search was made of Lake Pontchartrain Causeway and it shows the lake as seen below.
Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, Louisiana, U.S.
On August 30, 1956, the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway opened across Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana. The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway is the longest continuous bridge over water in the world. The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway links the urban area of New Orleans, Louisiana, with the smaller communities on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain. The roadway is 38 kilometres (24 miles) long and supported by 9,500 concrete pilings. The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway benefited residents on both sides of the bridge. People who worked in the city had their commute time reduced drastically. The bridge also increases business for retail stores and restaurants in towns on the north shore by allowing New Orleanians and tourists greater access. You can read more about Lake Pontchartrain Causeway here, here and here.
A Google Maps search also reveals a street view of Lake Pontchartrain as seen below.
Satellite Image from Google Map showing Lake Pontchartrain Causeway
Photo of Lake Pontchartrain at Metairie, Louisiana (a visitor’s image). The wide lake and distant skyline matches the New Orleans’ setting. Numerous sources identify the pair of bridges over this lake as the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana, U.S., and not Sierra Leone (No parallel spans like this exist at Lungi). Tools like reverse image search and map overlays confirmed that the scene corresponds to Louisiana, USA.
A flickr photo by Ken Lund taken from the middle of this bridge, looking north, shows Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, a dual-span highway, over water with road signs in view (e.g. “Wrong Way”) following American road standards. These features align with geographic data for Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana, U.S., and not any location in Sierra Leone. By comparison, Freetown roads and nearby islands look very different.
A flickr photo of Lake Louisiana Causeway, U.S. CREDITS: Ken Lund/Flickr.
The digital road signs “PASS WITH CARE” panels match images catalogued for the Louisiana Causeway. For example, Wikimedia Commons lists this exact bridge as “Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, Louisiana.”
Similarly, a geolocation tool supports the location: the coordinates for a matching photo (30.242658, -90.115147) fall on the Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana, United States, whereas Lungi in Sierra Leone has a completely different topography. No digital mapping or reverse search could link Malik’s image to any part of Sierra Leone, as all evidence shows it is Lake Pontchartrain in the United States.
Conclusion
The Facebook post by Malik Malik Bah is FALSE. The photograph he labelled as “Lungi Bridge” is that of the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana, U.S.
Findings by DUBAWA show that the Lungi Bridge in Sierra Leone has not been completed. Other reputable sources confirmed that it remains unbuilt, with recent progress limited to signing a new MoU.
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