Photo of a training event falsely used to claim protestors attacked police in Addis Ababa
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on October 5, 2023 at 14:13
- 3 min read
- By Tolera FIKRU GEMTA, AFP Ethiopia
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The post was published on Facebook on October 2, 2023 and has been shared more than 110 times since then.
“Addis Ababa, Bole… many Federal police are defecting!!! The people are saying enough!!!”.
The post includes a photo showing a faceoff between police officers in riot gear and a group of people who appear to be protestors, brandishing long sticks.
Behind the officers are several people filming the scene. One wears a bright yellow vest marked “PRESS”.
Current conflict
Fighting erupted earlier this year between troops and local militias in the Amhara region and violence persists in several other parts of the country (archived here).
UN experts announced (archived here) on October 3, 2023 that the ongoing conflict is “spreading across the country” and compromising security in the Horn of Africa.
An article published on a pro-Amhara rebel website also recently claimed (archived here) that the rebel force known as Fano was marching towards Addis Ababa to take power. The article further claimed “Addis Ababa people are awaiting the arrival of Fano”.
It is in this context that the post claims that people in Addis Ababa are saying “enough” – implying they are fed up with the government – and attacking federal police members, who are quitting their jobs.
However, this is not what the photo shows, nor have there been any reports of an exodus of federal police officers.
Police training
AFP Fact Check conducted reverse image searches and established that the photo shows Ethiopian police officers, both federal and regional, attending a training exercise organised by UNESCO in collaboration with Ethiopian Police University in April 2022.
The photo was originally published (archived here) on UNESCO’s official website on August 5, 2022 along with an article titled “Ethiopia police officials trained in fostering freedom of expression”. The photo is credited to UNESCO.
The photo shows police officers engaging in practical training on how to ensure the safety and security of journalists.
“The training focused on enhancing the role of police and law enforcement agencies in respecting international standards on freedom of expression and safety of journalists, while being transparent and accountable to citizens,” the article reads.
Edited post
AFP Fact Check further reviewed the edit history section of the post.
It shows that the post first contained a different image – which was deleted and is now unavailable – before it was replaced by the current photo.
Users commented on the original image to say that it was old, suggesting the user then changed the picture.
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