Claim: Yekeh Kolubah’s blog posted an image claiming that Liberia’s newly acquired earth-moving equipment (yellow machines) suffered an engine problem and got stuck at the Freeport of Monrovia.
Verdict: False! Research shows that the machines have been transported on loaded bed trucks since their arrival in the country. Moreover, the image posted by Yekeh Kolubah’s blog is AI-generated.
Full Text
In a move to enhance road quality and maintenance in Liberia, the government announced the procurement of 285 Yellow Machines in May 2024. The first agreement announced by the Minister of State Without Portfolio sparked some controversy and public backlash over the process and the cost of the deal. The deal was renegotiated at a new cost of USD$22million.
Based on the new procurement process, the government began transporting the first batch of machines to the Ware Barracks in Careysburg for storage on February 26, 2026. The exercise was witnessed by journalists and the public.
Shortly after, a Facebook user named Yekeh Kolubah alleged that some of the machines were malfunctioning and couldn’t be transported.
He posted a picture which had one earth-moving piece of equipment with the following caption: “Happening tonight! One of the brand new yellow machines has refused to go since this afternoon; the mechanics are still working tirelessly to get the engine running. It is currently parked before the Freeport of Monrovia.”
The claim was reposted by other social media users. The posts can be found here, here, and here.
Screenshot of the post.
The post accumulated 2.4k reactions, 856 comments, and 77 shares by the time of this write-up. In the comment section, viewers expressed varying opinions about the post’s authenticity. While some agreed with the claimant, others disagreed. The mixed reactions prompted DUBAWA to conduct a fact-check.
Verification
In verifying this claim, the researcher reviewed the live stream coverage of the yellow machine’s transportation to Careysburg on Spoon TV and Today Liberia. It was clear that the machines were transported on bed trucks rather than driven to the location.
The researcher also found out that not all 137 machines were transported at once. Rather, they were kept at the Freeport of Monrovia and gradually transported to Camp Ware Barrack for storage.
Furthermore, the image posted by the claimant was verified through Illuminarty AI, and the result revealed a 94.7% AI probability. This indicates that the image the claimant used is most likely AI-generated.
A screenshot of the AI result.
Conclusion
From our findings, the image is AI-generated, and the yellow machines are transported on bed trucks; therefore, the claim is misleading.