Woman in the Circulating Video is Turkish, Not Algerian
The Claim
An old woman is seen crying over her dead cow in Tizi Ouzou, Algeria.
News posted on
Emerging story
Social media accounts are circulating an image of an elderly woman crying next to a dead cow. The accompanying claim is that the lady is from Tizi Ouzou in Algeria, and she lost her cow due to the recent fires in the region.
Misbar’s Analysis
MENA: Misbar investigated the claim and found it misleading as the image is old and unrelated to Algeria. The woman in the picture is a 70-year-old Turkish Sabiha Özel. Her photograph was taken in the city of Denizli on the 5th of April 2019 after her only cow had fallen off a cliff. Özel, who lived alone, mourned the loss of the cow as it was her only source of income. The image caused a stir on Turkish social media as users sympathized with the old lady.
Algeria has currently declared mourning after the death toll from the fires rose to 65 people. The Director-General of Forests, Ali Mahmoudi, told APS that 86 fires out of a total of 103 fires that occurred in 17 Algerian provinces have not yet been extinguished. He explained that the province of Tizi Ouzou alone recorded 30 horrific fires. As for the causes of these fires, Mahmoudi did not rule out the possibility of human intervention, pointing out that high temperatures could not be the only reason behind the outbreaks.
