FACT-CHECK: Jeffrey Sachs did not warn that Israel is targeting South Sudan

Written by Gabriel Garang Garang

The viral Facebook post (archived) claiming that Jeffrey Sachs, an American economist and public policy analyst, has said Israel is targeting South Sudan, alleging plans to destabilize and take over the country, is unverified.

“Breaking News: Jeffrey Sachs warns that Israel 🇮🇱 is targeting South Sudan 🇸🇸, alleging plans to destabilize and take over the country have been underway for months,” the Facebook post first published by Insight Juba claimed, attracting over 25,000 reactions, 600+ comments, and 66 shares by the time this article was published.

The same claim was posted by Tonj Times (Instagram), and Tonj Times [Facebook], asserting that Jeffrey Sachs said Israel is targeting South Sudan to destabilize its government.

Debunking the Claim:

A Google keyword search of the keywords in the statement as a way of looking for whether the same words were being used by reputable and reliable sources, couldn’t return tangible results.

A Google reverse image search on this particular image returned results; the image was first used in 2018.

The National Catholic Reporter is an online news outlet, headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. On November 30, 2018, an article was published written by Peter Feuerherd carrying the same image, with a bold headline, “Jewish economist says Catholic social teaching is his moral compass.”

Other reputable sources that used the same image from the reverse image search can be seen here, here, here, and here.

About Jeffrey Sachs

Jeffrey D. Sachs is an American economist and public policy analyst. He is widely recognised for his expertise in global development, poverty reduction, and sustainable development. He currently directs the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University and serves as president of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

Our Verdict:

The ClarityDesk finds the claim that Jeffrey Sachs had said Israel is planning to destabilise South Sudan to be unverified.

There is no credible information to back the claim, such as a direct, public, or verified source in established media or on Jeffrey Sachs’ official, documented speaking engagements as of January 2026

This article is published by The ClarityDesk, with the support of the Election Civic Tech Fund of AfricTivistes, within the AHEAD Africa and Digitalise Youth projects, led by the Digital Democracy Initiative.

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