WHAT WAS CLAIMED
A mass grave with 300 children's bodies was found at Oprah Winfrey's academy for girls in Africa.
OUR VERDICT
False. There are no credible reports or evidence for the claim.
AAP FACTCHECK - A mass grave containing the bodies of 300 children has not been found at Oprah Winfrey's girls' school in Africa, despite claims on social media.
While there have been scandals at the South African school funded by the TV star, there are no credible reports of such a grisly discovery on its grounds.
The claim appears in a Facebook video featuring a blurred image of two people wearing protective equipment who appear to be conducting an exhumation.
"Oprah Winfrey, Jeffrey Epstein, Mark Zuckerberg, the CIA, UN, Bilderbergers, Deep State Elites, the Cabal's Blackrock and Vanguard and their international Satanic Child Sex Trafficking Ring were believed behind the recently discovered mass grave of over 300 tortured children found on the grounds of Oprah Winfrey's elite Leadership Academy for orphaned girls in Africa and also planned the kidnapping of 2,400 children missing from devastating fires that decimated Lahaina Maui Hawaii in August of 2023," overlay text reads.
The clip's voiceover appears to be generated using artificial intelligence, exhibiting unnatural intonation, pacing and pauses.
According to PolitiFact, the video's title refers to an online document containing conspiracy theories, including that the 2020 US election, won by Joe Biden, was fraudulent.
AAP FactCheck conducted a reverse image search and found the original photo on Getty Images.
The image, taken by a photographer for Turkish outlet Anadolu Agency in 2017, actually shows a mass grave uncovered in the African nation of Burundi dating back to 1972.
The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa's Gauteng Province was founded by the US TV host in 2007 to provide opportunities for underprivileged girls across the country.
An extensive search by AAP FactCheck found no credible news reports about a discovery of a mass grave on the school's grounds.
However, the institution has had a series of controversies, including an abuse scandal and the discovery of a dead newborn at the institution.
In 2010, a female staff member was acquitted of 14 charges relating to sexual and physical abuse involving six girls, the BBC reported.
The saga also led to a defamation case launched against Winfrey by a former headmaster, which was settled out of court, as reported by The Guardian and other outlets at the time.
In 2011, the newborn baby's body was found in a 17-year-old student's bag, US network ABC News reported.
Local police did not file charges against the girl, the report said, who is believed to have given birth at the school.
AAP FactCheck has previously debunked claims about missing or kidnapped children and the wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui.
As of January 2025, the only two people yet to be found after the August 2023 wildfires are two adult men named Elmer Lee Stevens and Robert H Owens, local news outlet Maui Now reported.
It's unclear where the figure of "2,400 children missing" in the Facebook video comes from.
Maui County authorities did revise down their estimates for those unaccounted for after the fires from 2400-2500 people to 1000-1100 on August 22, 2023.
Reuters Fact Check has previously debunked claims about missing minors after the fires on the island.
AAP FactCheck has previously debunked a conspiracy theory involving Oprah and child trafficking.
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