Post falsely claims state of emergency declared in Ethiopia’s Amhara region

“State of Emergency has been declared in the Amhara regional state”, the post in Afaan Oromoo reads, adding that it will last three months.

“The Ethiopian commando forces are taking actions against extremist Fano Amhara groups in Gojjam and Gonder earlier today”, the post goes on to claim.

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Screenshot of the false post, taken on May 2, 2023

Gojjam and Gonder are major zones in the Amhara region.

The post was published on April 29, 2023 and has been shared more than 280 times since.

The post is accompanied by an image showing three soldiers holding rifles in the middle of a street.

According to article 63 of Ethiopia’s constitution (archived here), a state of emergency can be declared by the federal council of ministers and approved by parliament.

It can be declared due to “external invasion, a breakdown of law, occurrence of natural disaster or epidemic”. Once approved, it is effective for six months, and can be renewed by a two-thirds majority vote of parliament.

Ethiopia’s last state of emergency was declared in November 2021 during the war in northern Ethiopia and lifted in January 2022, before it reached expiration.

Assassination in Amhara

Tensions have risen in the Amhara region after the local head of the ruling Prosperity Party was shot dead on April 27, 2023. Girma Yeshitila was assassinated while he was traveling with his family and bodyguards to Debre Birhan, a city about 100 kilometres northeast of Addis Ababa.

Five people including Girma were killed in the attack.

Federal security forces subsequently arrested 47 individuals on April 30, 2023, accusing them of plotting to overthrow the Ethiopian government.

However, Ethiopia did not declare a state of emergency in the Amhara region at the end of April, as claimed in the post.

No announcement

A check on the Ethiopian government’s official websites and social media channels found no announcement about any new state of emergency as of time of publication on May 3, 2023.

Ethiopian communications minister Legesse Tulu confirmed to AFP Fact Check that no state of emergency had been declared in the Amhara region.

“This is totally false,” said Legesse, adding that “there is no state of emergency in any part of the country”.

Unrelated image

By conducting a reverse image search, AFP Fact Check found that the image attached to the post showed security forces at the US Embassy in Addis Ababa – not in the Amhara region.

The image was originally shared on the official Facebook page of the Afar Regional State Communications Office on April 26, 2023. The post indicated that the image was taken during an event at the US Embassy in Addis Ababa, during which the embassy donated 10 vehicles to the Afar region to help with emergency management.

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Screenshot of the original photo, taken on May 2, 2023

The US embassy also tweeted about donating the vehicles.

The right-hand part of the original image, which shows Ethiopian federal police commissioner Demelash Gebremichael speaking with a police officer, was cropped out in the version shared in the false post.