FACT-CHECK: Old Photo of West Papuan Activist Recycled as Papua New Guinea PM at UN General Assembly

BY: Abdullateef Sebiotimo

Claim: 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyashu is scared of the President of Papua New Guinea who sat next to him at the United Nations General Assembly. 

Verdict:

False.

Full-text:

A facebook page, Meridian News Africa posted a picture of a man who appears bare-chested in traditional dress; feathered headdress, shell ornaments, arm bands, and a koteka and sitting at a UN gathering with the caption: “Even Netanyashu at a point was afraid of the Papua New Guinea representative from Africa.”

The post has already been liked by 569 users with several replications of the post on various social media platforms with some posts also claiming he is the president of Papua New Guinea and the picture is from the just concluded United Nations General Assembly  as seen here and  here respectively.

Replying in disagreement to the post, a Facebook user, Akange Philip lortyrom commented, “Guy, there is no way such a person in that dress code will be found in that gathering please.”

A review of the comment section reveals that several users either believe the picture is AI generated or that the text of the caption contains false information. As a result of this, FactCheckAfrica decided to verify the post.

Verification:  

Upon reverse searching the viral image, we found no credible media outlets reporting that the person in the photo is a representative of Papua New Guinea or its president at the United Nations General Assembly held in September, 2026.  It is also worth  noting that Papua Guinea is a constitutional monarchy with a Prime Minister, not a President. 

Additionally, the search revealed that this photo has been circulating on social media since May 2017 as seen here , here and archived here where it was reported that the man, a member of a tribal group from the West Papua region, had appeared at a gathering at the United Nations headquarters in New York in May 2017. This confirms that even if the picture is not a generated one, it was used out of context as claimed by some posts on social media that it was from UNGA81. 

To verify this information, we conducted further research. Using the information provided above, we conducted a keyword search on YouTube. We found a channel called “West Papua.” A video was uploaded to this channel on May 30, 2017, showing a man giving a speech at a gathering.

A screenshot of the YouTube channel where the video was uploaded in 2017

According to the video title and caption, the video is a recording of aN meeting on local issues held between April 24 and May 5, 2017. The West Papua Liberation Organization presented its views at this meeting.

Upon reviewing the video, FactCheckAfrica noticed a man standing behind the speaker. His head is not visible, but his attire suggests he is the same person as the one in the viral photo. We cross-matched the body features of the man, sitting posture and audience in the picture in another picture obtained online with the recently trending one and we found  it to be the same.

Original picture of the man at the United Nations meeting in 2017 

It is also important to note that the “West Papua Liberation Organization” is an organization that works to liberate the West Papua region from Indonesia. Currently, West Papua is considered a province of Indonesia. Papua New Guinea is a separate independent country.

West Papua and Papua New Guinea are separate parts of New Guinea, the world’s second-largest island. Protests for West Papua’s independence have been ongoing for years, and numerous appeals have been made to the United Nations. This confirms that the man is not from Africa as claimed by the author of the post. 

Upon further search, we found that earlier reports about the man’s appearance in 2017 identified him as Urupmabin. He is also involved in the ongoing struggle for West Papua’s independence.

The version of the image showing Netanyahu sitting next to the man is a manipulated composite. When the image was subjected to Hive Detect ,an AI-image detection tool, it scored 98.6, indicating it was generated by GPT-Image-2. This high score, combined with visual inconsistencies (lighting, seating proportions, background details, and the known 2017 origin of the original photo, confirms the Netanyahu portion is artificially generated/composited rather than a genuine photograph.

Conclusion:

The image showing Benjamin Netanyahu seated beside the man in traditional attire is false. It is an AI-generated image that places Netanyahu next to the older 2017 version of the picture. Also, the man is from West Papua, a province that has been clamouring for liberation in Indonesia and not Papua New Guinea, both of which are not from Africa as claimed by the author.