Ethiopian prime minister’s speech about country’s access to sea taken out of context

The post, published in Amharic, claims Abiy warned neighbouring states during a parliamentary session that “we will get the port by devouring you”, and added that “you will not overthrow us by Kalashnikov”.

Image

Screenshot of the misleading post, taken November 12, 2023

The post, dated November 14, 2023, has been shared more than 200 times. It has accumulated more than 46,000 views.

The video in the post is 17 minutes long and begins with a male narrator saying: “In his speech to Parliament, the Prime Minister announced the inevitability of another round of war. He said: ‘If you don’t let us have the port peacefully, we will get it by devouring you’.”

Access to sea

Ethiopia is a land-locked country. It lost its Red Sea coast (archived here) when Eritrea became an independent country in 1993 after more than three decades of armed conflict.

Ethiopia was then granted access to Eritrea’s Assab Port on the Red Sea until the two countries went to war between 1998-2000. Years of border disputes followed, keeping tensions high.

When Abiy came to power in 2018, both parties signed a major peace deal (archived here), finally ending two decades of enmity.

Image

Map of Ethiopia and Eritrea and the history of their relations. (SOPHIE RAMIS / AFP)

Eritrea was a major ally (archived here) of Ethiopia in the two-year war against the Tigray Peoples’ Liberation Front (TPLF) that ended in November 2022 with a peace deal.

Contrary to the claim, the footage does not show Abiy saying his country will “devour” other states in order to open up a new route to the Red Sea.

Parliamentary speech

AFP Fact Check used the video verification tool InVID-WeVerify to conduct reverse image searches on keyframes from the video.

The search results established that a much longer version of the speech footage was published (archived here) on YouTube by the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC), a state-owned television station, on November 14, 2023. This video’s caption reads: “The FDRE House of Representatives 3rd year, 6th regular session”.

Running over four hours, the EBC’s footage featured Abiy’s full speech in parliament on the day. During proceedings, Abiy answered questions, including one about the country’s access to the sea.

AFP Fact Check then compared the edited video with the original footage broadcast by EBC.

The edited video opens with comments by a narrator who refers to Abiy’s address.

“In his speech to Parliament, the prime minister announced the inevitability of another round of war. He said: ‘If you don’t let us have the port peacefully, we will get it by devouring you'.”

The narrator adds: “He said his government has reliable military capabilities to take over the port. He also said that Eritrea would face another round of survival challenge, similar to the 1950s when the Eritrean federation with Ethiopia was dissolved, leading to an armed struggle that brought Eritrean independence.”

After a few static images flash up on the screen, Abiy appears and says: “The then government of Haile Selassie in Ethiopia unilaterally dissolved Ethiopia and Eritrea. But that government was overthrown in Ethiopia and Eritrea started an armed struggle and gained its independence after years of struggle. This is our memory of the past. So if our demand to discuss the port issue is ignored today, similar to the case of the confederation, then I don’t know what will happen in the future.”

AFP Fact Check found this exact segment at 4:31:25 into the original video. Abiy did not say his government had the military capability to take over the port, nor did he announce “the inevitability of another round of war”.

What is fact is that Eritrea was confederated (archive here) with Ethiopia in 1952, a union that lasted only for a decade.

Next, the narrator in the edited video comments on the questions raised by the parliamentarians, criticising them for praising Abiy’s new palace construction project rather than raising fundamental issues in the country.

Footage showing members of the parliament expressing their appreciation for the project as well as Abiy’s response follows. AFP Fact Check established that the footage comes from the EBC video, found at 1:09:52 and again at 1:40:22.

Thereafter, the narrator comments on soaring food prices in Ethiopia in relation to a response to a question from Abiy.

The video then cuts to Abiy talking about inflation.

“Honorable members of the House of Representatives, is it new to you to eat bread made of corn with cabbage? Is it not what we all grow up with? Is it new for Ethiopians to face the challenge of eating once a day? Are conflicts and wars a new phenomenon for us? Our history is largely a history of war. What we urgently need is peace,” says Abiy.

AFP Fact Check established that the excerpt comes from the original video, specifically at 1:53:52.

Furthermore, in the original video, before speaking about conflict and war, Abiy says that “our real challenge is overcoming poverty, producing surplus and feeding our people”. This part was not included in the edited video.

Also in the edited video, Abiy comments on regional conflicts in different parts of Ethiopia

Abiy says at one point: “It is difficult to overthrow the government through armed struggles observed here and there. Currently, Ethiopia has a capital project of over $10 billion. If the worst comes, Ethiopia would delay those projects and expend the capital to defend itself.”

AFP Fact Check established that this segment of footage was taken from the original video at various points from 2:09:32 to 2:30:50.

Finally, at 15’20” into the edited video, the narrator claims Abiy says “let us discuss before conflict emerges; otherwise we will possess the port by devouring you”.

Abiy’s actual words were: “Before we face hunger, before we face complications, we need to discuss (port access). When there is hunger, there is no time to discuss it. When there is hunger, there is no power, no law that can force us to be silent and die. If we cannot import food because of access to the port, we will survive by eating anything we get,” he says.

AFP Fact Check found the same footage in the original video at 4:31:25.

AFP Fact Check further reviewed the fentire original video and established that Abiy did not once suggest the use of force to resolve Ethiopia’s request to access the Red Sea port.

AFP also reported (archived here) on November 14, 2023 that Abiy gave his assurances Ethiopia would not invade a neighbouring nation to open a route to the Red Sea.