Old photo of Ethiopian captives in Tigray falsely linked to Amhara region unrest

This article is more than one year old.
Published on June 14, 2023 at 17:15
3 min read
By Tolera FIKRU GEMTA, AFP Ethiopia

A photo shared on Facebook purportedly show armed opposition forces from Amhara with Ethiopian government soldiers captured in May 2023. However, this is false: the photo was posted online in September 2022 along with other images of Ethiopian prisoners of war captured in Tigray during the civil war in the country’s northern region.

The post in Amharic translates to: "The fascist Abiy OLF soldiers have been very well punished. Let the movement advance towards Arat Kilo. Amhara will finish what it started."

Arat Kilo is a historical monument in the capital city of Addis Ababa where the federal offices of the Ethiopian government and others are situated.

Screenshot of the false post, taken on June 4, 2023.

"Abiy" refers to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who comes from Oromia – the region where the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) is operating.

The photo – which shows a long line of soldiers on a dusty road – also features the word "captives". The post was published on May 28, 2023, and has been shared more than 120 times.

Since a truce ended the two-year war in Tigray in November 2022, the government has been disarming regional armies, (archived here). But the move has met resistance in some parts of the country, including Amhara and Oromia.

Abiy’s decision has revived ethnic tensions, pitting former allies against each other.

However, the photo doesn’t show Ethiopian soldiers captured in Amhara in May 2023.

Old photo

AFP Fact Check conducted a reverse image search and found that the photo was shared on social media in 2022 along with other pictures showing captured federal forces during the Tigray war.

This tweet, dated September 14, 2022, includes three pictures – one of them being the image circulated in the false post.

Screenshot of a post shared in 2022, taken on June 5, 2023.

Searches revealed the second image featured on a website called "Real News" in September 2022 with a report (archived here) headlined "Ethiopian and Eritrean governments launched offensive in Tigray".

The picture caption reads: "Ethiopian soldiers are photographed after being captured."

Screenshot of a photo featured on a website, taken on June 5, 2023.

The third image comes from a video taken by Dimits Weyane (DW) TV in June 2022. The text accompanying the video describes the release of Ethiopian troops by the regional government of Tigray.

Screenshot of a video published in June 2022, taken on June 5, 2023.

AFP Fact Check was unable to verify the source of the picture used in the false posts but the first date of publication rules out the claim that it happened recently in Amhara.

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