Clickbait post lures Ethiopians with false claim about Addis Ababa mayor in spat with artist

The post has been shared more than 140 times since it was published on Facebook on February 10, 2023.

Image

Screenshot of the clickbait post, taken on February 23, 2023

Written in Afaan Oromoo, the post translates to: “Breaking news: the mayor of Finfinne, Adanech Abiebie, was offended by the hate speech spread by Teddy Afro about the Oromia Synod and rebuked the musician early today in a manner that made the Oromo people proud. She deserves to be thanked. Please watch her response to Teddy Afro by clicking on the link below.”

Finfinne is the Oromo name of Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa.

The conflict in Ethiopia’s Orthodox Christian Church erupted after a group of bishops created their own synod in Oromia. The crisis has since been resolved, according to the church leadership.

Popular Ethiopian musician Teddy Afro, whose real name is Tedros Kassahun, had publicly criticised the rift.

“I strongly condemn the divisions in our historic holy church and the evil deeds of attempting to divide the holy synod,” he said in a Facebook post.

The Ethiopian government has traditionally maintained a cordial relationship with the Orthodox Church, to which at least 40 percent of the more than 110 million population adhere.

Local media reported that in January, a section of bishops from the Ethiopian Orthodox Church accused the organisation of ethnic discrimination and formed a splinter group. The church declared the dissident group illegal and excommunicated the officials involved.

The rift sparked deadly protests with supporters of the main church clashing with those of the breakaway group.

But the link does not lead to a video showing Adanech criticising Afro.

Clickbait post

The URL opened to a website that featured a combined text and video story in Afaan Oromoo about Oromo artists condemning Afro for his statements about the church.

“Breaking news: a section of leaders and famous Oromo artists have spoken against Teddy Afro’s sentiment regarding the Oromia synod, earlier today. Please see what they said below and share with other people,” reads the text section of the story.

The video on the website speaks about the same conflict in the Orthodox Church and discusses Afro’s statement about the rift. Additionally, it reviews a press statement by the Oromia Communication Bureau on the crisis.

The statement, written in Afaan Oromoo, calls for a peaceful resolution to the dispute and warns people against using the situation to incite conflict.

“We will not tolerate the people who use religion and ethnic differences as a pretext to instigate conflict,” reads a section of the statement.

The office of Addis Ababa’s mayor distanced itself from the claim that she was involved in a spat with Afro.

“This is propaganda, the mayor has never been involved in a war of words with the said musician,” Adanech’s office told AFP Fact Check.