Video altered to make Ethiopian activist appear to announce death of rebel leader in October 2024

Rumours have recently swirled in Ethiopia claiming that Zemene Kassie, a rebel leader in the Amhara region, has died. A video shared on Facebook claims that an Ethiopian activist confirmed the death. However, this is false: in the footage, the activist is referring to the death of another rebel commander, Wubante Abate, who was killed ten months ago. The section of the original video mentioning Wubante was deliberately omitted and a photo of Zemene was added to give the impression that the activist was talking about the latter. 

The post published on Facebook on October 28, 2024, starts with text in Amharic that reads “Zemene Kassie” followed by emojis depicting grief. 

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Screenshot of the altered post, taken on October 29, 2024 

The post contains a 50-second clip that shows Zemedkun Bekele, an Ethiopian political activist based in Germany, speaking to the camera. 

Zemedkun, an influential supporter of Fano rebels, frequently discusses the rebel forces on his social media pages. 

A photo of Zemene is displayed on the right side of the screen while Zemedkun speaks. 

Zemene is one of the top leaders of the Fano rebels, who have been fighting the Ethiopian army in the Amhara region since July 2023.

“Rest in peace,” reads the text on the top right of the video clip. 

At the bottom of the clip, there is also a text overlay that claims, “Zemene Kassie has been confirmed dead”. 

The clip starts with Zemedkun saying: “I confirm that they labelled him a traitor and conspired to assassinate him. Those of you who contributed to his death will be brought to justice.” 

Zemedkun, a former Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church preacher, holds a picture of the Virgin Mary while speaking. 

Similar video posts shared on Facebook also claim Zemedkun confirmed the death of the rebel leader (here and here). 

Death rumours 

At the beginning of October 2024, the Ethiopian army launched an offensive against the Fano rebels in the Amhara region and deployed additional troops.

Local media reported deadly clashes between the army and the rebels in several parts of the region on October 27, 2024 (archived here). According to these reports, the armed clashes took place in South Wollo, East Gojjam and Awi zones, and resulted in civilian deaths, injuries and disruption of public services.

Rumours circulated on Ethiopian social media that Zemene may have been killed during the army’s offensive (archived here). Neither Ethiopian government sources nor the rebels have confirmed or denied these rumours.

However, the clip does not show Zemedkun confirming the death of the rebel leader. 

Altered video 

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

This led us to the original footage – a video shared on Facebook by Zemedkun in July (archived here). 

In the video, he discusses the death of a different Fano leader, Wubante Abate. 

Wubante, who was commanding the rebels in the Gondar zone of the Amhara region, was reportedly killed in battle in March 2024 (archived here). The rebels confirmed his death. 

In the original video, Zemedkun talks about people he believes conspired to kill Wubante.  

At the 25-second mark, Zemedkun says: “I confirm that they labelled him a traitor and conspired to kill him. Those of you who contributed to his death will be brought to justice.” He then mentions the names of Amhara activists in the diaspora he holds responsible for Zemedkun’s death. 

A minute later he remarks that “Habtamu Ayalew, Eskinder Nega will not be more important to Amhara than Wubante who was killed by their conspiracy”.

Habtamu Ayalew is a pro-rebel journalist based in the US, while Eskinder Nega is a former journalist who joined the rebels.

At no point in the original video does Zemedkun mention Zemene. 

In the altered clip, the section of the original video talking about Wubante was deliberately omitted and a photo of Zemene was added to the footage to give the impression that Zemedkun was talking about Zemene.

AFP has previously debunked claims related to armed conflict in the Amhara region here, here and here

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