Fact Check: Did Mongolian Minister set himself ablaze over failure to complete housing project?

Claim: A video trending on WhatsApp claims that the Mongolian Minister of Public Works set himself ablaze because he was unable to build 100,000 units of low-income houses as he promised.

Full Text: The video which is now trending on WhatsApp was shared and forwarded several times with the following text:

“The Minister of Public works in Mongolia promised to build one hundred thousand units of low-income houses in a year. He said if he fails, he would set himself ablaze. At the end of the year, he built seventy thousand. He then called a press conference during which he set himself ablaze!! Hmmmmm.”

Verification: A simple online search reveals that the incident was actually reported on 17th of November 2015, about seven years ago, which is therefore not a recent occurrence as being portrayed.

Also, the news, which was reported by many media platforms, has nothing to do with the Mongolian Minister of Public Works but rather associated with a Mongolian union boss identified as S. Erdene who set himself on fire in protest at the sale of coal mines in Mongolia to China and drew attention on the conditions faced by miners in the country.

“The government no longer supports our company, families of the workers are forced to starve,” he told reporters during the briefing. “This is why I will burn myself for the people of Mongolia and our children.”

He then lights his lapel and bursts into flames immediately.

Verdict: The Incident did not occur recently as claimed in the viral video but in 2015 when one S. Erdene, the chairman of the Board of the Mongolian Solidarity Labor Union in protest at the sale of coal mines in Mongolia set himself ablaze.

Conclusion: The claim that the Mongolian Minister of Public Works set himself on fire due to his inability to complete housing projects as promised, is therefore false.

PRNigeria.