Benjamin Strick Profile picture
May 26 10 tweets 6 min read Read on X
In April, CNN journalists were led to the 'home' of Haitian gang lord Vitel’homme Innocent and interviewed him. He is on @FBIMostWanted's Top 10, with a bounty of up to $2 million.

I mapped their drive and found his home here: 18.5278, -72.2314. Here's how👇🧵
First, I did this because knowing the location of where a gang lord responsible for horrible violence is helpful, even if he might not be there after CNN visited. Vitel is the leader of Kraze Barye and is on the @FBIMostWanted list for taking hostages, and sanctioned by UN.
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This is the footage I used to geolocate Vitel'Homme Innocent's house, where the interview was conducted. I'll go through some of the scenes to provide proofs of how I made the geographical matches, using Google Earth.

Source:
The first geolocation, and the easiest one thanks to the majestic mountain range surrounding Haiti's capital, Port-au-Prince, was at 01:04 of the video. We see a big wall, large factory roof, turn in the road, and a lovely mountain range. Location: 18.5447, -72.2359
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The second geolocation was this brilliant little architectural oddity of the little street wall, that served its geolocatable purpose well.
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The third and last on the route was the drive past this factory area, again we could see the mountain range in the background. But to narrow it down was this line of buildings and a little sand pile that was consistently present, even in past satellite imagery.
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From studying the video quite closely, it's fairly clear that the roof would have been orange, given the colour in the video, and a lot of mansions have orange roofs in this area. The final area was just over 1.6km from the route videos, so it took a bit of scrolling to find.
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Once finding the 'home' the CNN team met Vitel'homme Innocent at, it was fairly clear that was the location. Main giveaways were significant features such as the double triangle roof seen from the side, the entrance was at the end of the street, and construction next door. Image
One of the things that made this geolocation easier was a reference image I made of what the area would look like on a map, from what I could see in the footage. The image below shows just how much can be gleaned from footage alone, in comparison to the satellite image.
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Wow this thread on geolocating a Haitian gang lord got a lot of traction.

Final note, this took me a few hours, and can be done by anyone willing to put in the time. If you want to learn how to do this type of research, I make free YouTube tutorials 👇
youtube.com/@bendobrown?si…

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More from @BenDoBrown

May 20
Google Earth has updated the whole of Sudan's El Geneina to reveal the disturbing scale of damage which happened during a reported ethnic cleansing campaign over the past year by the RSF and allied militias. Images shows #elgeneina from 2022 & 2024. More in the thread below 👇

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Looking at the destruction visible on Google Earth, it's clear there were large areas targeted in El Geneina's west and east. It's worth noting that some of the shaded areas in the east had remainders of where there was previous destruction from clashes prior to 2023. Image
The destruction can be clearly seen in this area on Google Earth, just west of the centre of Darfur's El Geneina. The comparison is of Oct 2022 and April 2024. This satellite imagery is just a visualisation of the horrors that were committed by the RSF in its campaign.
Read 8 tweets
May 16
The situation in the Darfur city El Fasher (الفاشر) is extremely concerning. It's the last city not under control by the dangerous Rapid Support Forces and has been a safe haven for those fleeing attacks by the RSF.

It is now a city under siege and in a grave situation. /1
According to @MSF, a paediatric hospital in El Fasher was damaged due to the ongoing fighting. MSF ground staff reported a Sudanese Armed Forces air strike exploded nearby causing the damage. Two children died in the ICU. /2
An update on Sudan's El Fasher from @MSF on May 15 indicated that since fighting began on May 10, 454 casualties had arrived at South Hospital in El Fasher. It was reported that 56 died, but that the wounded and death toll would be higher. /3 msf.org/sudan-nowhere-…
Read 10 tweets
Apr 22
Google Earth has updated its satellite imagery of many parts of Sudan. Looking over West Darfur city of El Geneina, I am shocked at the level of destruction. In some parts, whole areas have been destroyed and cleared. Location: 13.4469, 22.4151 (dates: April 2023 & March 2024)
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The burn damage around El Geneina's specialised hospital is incredible.
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It's not just the widespread burning of structures that we see in El Geneina, as a result of the ongoing violence in Sudan, but there are also clear indications of structures that have been removed, like these warehouses, located at 13.43324, 22.41364
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Read 5 tweets
Oct 7, 2023
This video, reportedly showing an Israeli woman kidnapped, beaten and taken into Gaza, was filmed from Al Shuja-iyyah St in Gaza at about 10am this morning.

Geolocation: 31.503462, 34.466569.
@Cen4infoRes @GeoConfirmed @bellingcat

Verification 👇 maps.app.goo.gl/ZF1Dx23w7jm5Dr…
Verification of the location can be confirmed through the location of the minaret in the background, white dome in the near ground, and then the angle of the orange roof in comparison to the street.

Location: 31.503462, 34.466569.
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Shadows seen in the footage, indicate that the sun had to have been at a position to cast those shadows in line, or just off, the same angle as the street at 10am, or just before 10am.

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Read 7 tweets
May 10, 2023
Lots of smoke rising over the skyline of Khartoum today as clashes continue between RSF and SAF forces in different areas of the city.
People in Sudan have shared these flyers in a plea for help over what's happening with a water purification plant that services a lot of Khartoum with clean water.

It has been badly damaged and safe access needs to be granted to allow for repairs to be made to the plant. ImageImage
The water treatment plant in Bahri appears to have been damaged in the initial wave of bombings in Khartoum. In satellite imagery on Google Earth from April 15 we can see a fire in the area, imagery from @planet on April 19 published by @hrw at least one building damaged. ImageImage
Read 17 tweets
May 3, 2023
Racial hate speech has surged on Twitter, Telegram and other platforms to incite, promote and justify violence against Ukrainians since Feb 2022.

Our research at @Cen4infoRes has identified these networks, who they are and how they spread. Full report: info-res.org/post/incitemen… Image
The findings are based on data collected from Twitter and Telegram, looking at more than 1585 accounts and 480 channels and running follow up searches on numerous platforms.

Data was collected using keywords: Khokhols, Hohols and iterations used as anti-Ukrainian national slurs
The terms were selected given their prominence in Google Search trends. For example, the screenshot below shows the increase in the search of the term Khokhol which surged significantly after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Image
Read 11 tweets

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