Photo of Malaysian navy vessel sinking falsely linked to conflict in western Myanmar

A photo of a Malaysian navy vessel sinking in August 2024 has circulated in social media posts that falsely claimed it showed a Burmese army ship, as an ethnic armed group in Myanmar made advances for control of the last remaining junta naval base in western Rakhine state. The Royal Malaysian Navy told AFP the image shows the KD Pendekar that sank off the coast of the southern Johor state.

The photo of a partially submerged ship was shared on Facebook on August 29, 2024. 

"Min Aung Hlaing's last swim in Ngapali beach, Thandwe," the Burmese-language read, referring to the military leader who orchestrated a 2021 coup that effectively ended Myanmar's decade-long stint with democracy (archived link).

Thandwe is a major seaport in western Rakhine state.

The junta's brutal crackdown on anti-coup protesters has forced thousands of youth into newly formed "People's Defence Forces" in the jungle and reignited fighting with existing ethnic armed groups.

A ceasefire in Rakhine that largely held since the coup was broken after the Arakan Army attacked the military there in November 2023.

The group went on to capture the tourist beachfront town of Thandwe in June 2024, a major setback for the junta (archived link).

The photo of the sinking ship surfaced on pro-Arakan Army Facebook accounts here, here and here as the group reportedly launched an offensive to control the last remaining naval base near the town (archived link).

However, there have not been credible reports of a Burmese navy ship sinking in Rakhine state in August 2024.

A spokesperson from the Royal Malaysian Navy confirmed the photo actually shows KD Pendekar, a naval vessal that sank off the coast of Johor in August 25, 2024.

KD Pendekar sinking

Reverse image and keyword searches on Google found a post on X, formerly Twitter, by a Malaysia-based account on August 25, 2024 about the sinking of a navy vessel from the Southeast Asian country on the same day (archived link).

The post showed another photo of the sunken ship and a video of the rescue efforts, where people can be heard shouting "pull" in Malay.

The caption reads: "KD Pendekar, stranded. Awaiting detailed incident/accident investigation report."

Below is a screenshot comparison of the photo from the false post (left) and the photo from the X post (right):

The same X post was embedded in a report about the sinking by Malaysian English-language daily The Star (archived link).

The Royal Malaysian Navy (TLDM) confirmed the photo circulated in false posts in fact shows the KD Pendekar.

"TLDM confirms that the photo in the Facebook post is KD Pendekar during the incident dated 25 August 2024," a spokeswoman told AFP on August 30, 2024.

The ship suffered a "leakage and significant flooding" after it was believed to have hit an underwater object two nautical miles southeast of Tanjung Penyusop, in the southern state of Johor in Peninsular Malaysia, according to a TLDM statement on August 25 (archived link).

"All the crew were rescued after efforts to control the leakage and stabilize the ship failed," the statement said. "The TLDM’s main focus now is to conduct salvage operations to save the ship."

However, a navy diver died during the salvage operation on August 28, Malaysian online news outlet Free Malaysia Today reported (archived link).

The TLDM shared a photo of the ship, which resembles the photo circulated online.

AFP has previously debunked misinformation related to the conflict in Myanmar here.