Images from Tigray war misleadingly linked to recent conflict in Amhara region
- Published on March 13, 2024 at 17:09
- Updated on March 14, 2024 at 10:53
- 5 min read
- By Tolera FIKRU GEMTA, AFP Ethiopia
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The armed conflict between the Ethiopian army and rebels in the northern Amhara region continues, with fighting reportedly returning to the region's capital. Social media posts claim to show photos of Ethiopian troops captured by Fano rebels in Amhara in February 2024. However, this is misleading: while the images feature government soldiers, they were captured during the Tigray war that ended in 2022.
An X post published on February 29, 2024, claimed rebel fighters had taken more than 450 Ethiopian soldiers prisoner and seized their weapons during recent battles in Gendwein and Mertule Mariam, two towns in east Gojjam zone in Amhara region.
“Fano has gained historic victory during the recent heavy fighting,” it said.
Four images in the post showed dozens of soldiers seated on the ground in military uniform.
The claim was shared on a page called “Amhara Fano central command official”, which regularly publishes content about the Fano militia group. The rebels have been fighting the Ethiopian army in Amhara since July 2023.
A similar post was also published on Facebook on the same day.
Continued clashes
Fighting in Amhara, Ethiopia's second most populous region, erupted less than a year after the government signed a peace deal with forces in the neighbouring Tigray region where a two-year war that ended in November 2022 killed hundreds of thousands of people (archived here).
International media recently reported that clashes had returned to Bahir Dar, the capital of Amhara, at the end of February 2024 (archived here).
Battles were also reported in Gojjam, North Shoa, Gondar and Wollo (archived here).
During the Tigray war, the Ethiopian army and Fano were allies. That changed when the government later tried to disarm groups like Fano, who resisted, leading to more bloodshed.
However, the photos do not show federal troops captured by Fano in Amhara in February 2024.
Unrelated photos
AFP Fact Check conducted reverse image searches and established that the images were of government soldiers detained by Tigrayan forces in 2021.
Search results led to a 30-second footage (archived here) published on Facebook by a pro-Tigrayan account on August 17, 2021.
“New prisoners of war,” reads the caption in Tigrigna. “They were captured by the Tigray Defence Force.”
AFP Fact Check found that at least three of the images in the misleading post are screengrabs taken from the same footage in August 2021.
A keyword search in Amharic for “captured soldiers in 2021” yielded a news video published (archived here) on September 3, 2021, by Tigrai TV, a broadcaster based in the Tigray region.
It contained images of captured soldiers from the misleading post and scenes of fighting.
“The heroic Tigray Defence Force captured several soldiers of the regime along with heavy firearms in a battle in Kobo and surrounding areas on August 22, 2021,” the news anchor said. Kobo is located in the North Wollo zone in Amhara.
Tigrayan forces had pushed the war into Amhara and captured Kobo in August 2021 (archived here). The Ethiopian army retook the town months later (archived here).
The fourth image is a screenshot from a video shared on Facebook (archived here) on September 3, 2023, by an account called “Ethio Fast News”. The footage appears to show soldiers seated on the ground surrounded by a large group carrying weapons and wearing a mixture of civilian and military uniforms.
“Fano captured more than 300 fascist Abiy Ahmed regime soldiers along with their firearms,” reads the Amharic caption. Abiy Ahmed is Ethiopia’s prime minister.
AFP Fact Check found the screengrab was taken five seconds into the clip.
We could not verify what the video showed but its publication date means it could not have been filmed in 2024, as claimed in the posts.
The story was corrected to fix an erroneus link about Tigrayan forces capturing Kobo in August 2021.March 14, 2024 The story was corrected to fix an erroneus link about Tigrayan forces capturing Kobo in August 2021.
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