Post falsely claims photo shows rebel leader’s return to Ethiopia after failed peace talks
- This article is more than one year old.
- Published on November 30, 2023 at 16:00
- 3 min read
- By Tolera FIKRU GEMTA, AFP Ethiopia
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The post, shared on November 26, 2023, contains a caption in both Afaan Oromoo and Amharic, Ethiopia’s major languages.
“Marroo has returned to his base safely,” reads the part in Afaan Oromoo.
The Amharic section translates to: “News: a commander of the Oromo Liberation Army who was in Tanzania for a peace deal has safely returned to his military base.”
OLA is a rebel force that has been fighting against the Ethiopian army in Oromia, the country’s largest region, since 2018.
The caption also includes a Telegram link that leads to a channel with various stories about OLA operations and the Oromo people.
The post contains a photo that shows a small aeroplane surrounded by onlookers on a bush airstrip with mountains in the distance.
It was published in a Facebook group with more than 48,000 members and shared more than 60 times. The account bears the name of OLA’s spokesperson, Odaa Tarbii and features the same profile picture that Odaa uses for his authentic account (archived here) on X (formerly Twitter).
Peace talks
The Ethiopian government and OLA recently engaged in a second round of peace talks (archived here) to end the armed conflict. An East African regional organisation, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), took a leading role in facilitating the negotiation in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Local media reported (archived here) that OLA commander Marroo flew from a remote area in the western Oromia region to Dar es Salaam for the peace talks.
However, the Ethiopian government announced (archived here) on November 21, 2023, that the negotiations ended after two weeks without an agreement, confirmed by the OLA in a press release (archived here).
Both parties had failed to reach an agreement in the first round of peace talks, which took place in Zanzibar, Tanzania, in May 2023.
After the second set of talks failed, social media users in Ethiopia speculated as to whether Marroo had made it back home safely or not.
However, the photo does not show Marroo returning to his base in Oromia.
Photo from Indonesia
AFP Fact Check conducted reverse image searches and found the original photo (archived here).
It was published on the Facebook page of pilot Matt Dearden (archived here) on November 18, 2023 – while peace talks were ongoing in Dar es Salaam.
The original photo is captioned: “Just a 2 minute hop from the main airstrip of Ilaga, Gome isn’t served often but is a good challenge when required due to its rough and short airstrip #FyingFromShangriLa (sic).”
Dearden confirmed to AFP Fact Check that he did not take the photo in Ethiopia.
“I took this photo in 2013 at Gome airstrip in the highlands of Papua, Indonesia,” Dearden said.
He shared the original photo file with AFP Fact Check. Its metadata indicates the image was taken on January 25, 2013.
Imposter accounts
AFP Fact Check had previously debunked (archived here) another Facebook page claiming to belong to Odaa in May 2023. At the time, the OLA press office said Odaa was not on Facebook.
The OLA press office has not yet responded to AFP Fact Check's latest request for comment.
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