Altered video of old Ethiopian PM speech falsely linked to Oromia killings in 2024

“About Salale killings,” reads a text overlay in Amharic splashed across the top of a TikTok video published on November 22, 2024. At the bottom of the screen, another overlay reads: “Watch Abiy’s speech.” 

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Screenshot of the altered post, taken on December 2, 2024  

Salale people – from a clan that belongs to Ethiopia’s Oromo – live in the north Shewa zone in Oromia region where armed assailants recently decapitated a 17-year-old boy. 

The post, shared more than 4,400 times, shows Abiy in black clothes speaking to the camera. 

“Internal and external enemies carried out this horrible action by killing people belonging to Oromo people to instigate conflict between ethnic groups, destroy the country and dismantle our development plan,” Abiy says.

“I would like to express my deepest condolences on behalf of the FDRE government. The killing was an attempt to trigger a large-scale ethnic conflict and perpetuate mistrust between ethnic groups.”

FDRE refers to the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. 

“All citizens of Ethiopia should support us in our efforts to maintain peace and security and implement the development plans. The government will continue its tireless efforts to ensure peace and security in the country,” Abiy adds.

The post was also shared on Facebook here. 

Civilian killings 

The beheading of the young man in the Dera district, north Shewa zone in Oromia, came to light when a video said to depict his murder surfaced on Ethiopian social media in mid-November 2024 (archived here). 

Public condemnation was swift and sparked protests by university students (archived here). 

On November 21, 2021, the US-based Oromia Media Network (OMN) broadcast witness accounts of bloodshed and displacement affecting the Salale community in Dera (archived here). 

However, the footage of Abiy appealing to the public for calm is unrelated to these events. 

Altered video 

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

The results revealed that various media outlets had posted the original video of Abiy's address more than four years ago, following the assassination of Oromo music star Hachalu Hundessa (archived here).

Digital news outlet RN.05 Channel uploaded the broadcast to YouTube on June 30, 2020, a day after Hachalu was shot dead (archived here). 

The footage appears to have been aired by ETV Zena – a state-owned broadcaster within the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC) – whose logo is visible on-screen.

However, a search of the EBC’s YouTube channel for the video yielded no results, indicating it might have been taken down.

The footage begins with a news presenter referring to Abiy’s speech while Hachalu’s picture, missing in the altered clip, is displayed on the screen (archived here).  

Forty seconds into the original video, Abiy speaks about Hachalu’s life and how he was targeted by those he describes as “Ethiopian enemies”. He hails Hachalu for being “a young talented artist and hero who stood for his people during challenging times”.

Abiy, like Hachalu, is Oromo. 

At the 2’31” mark, Abiy says: “Internal and external enemies carried out this horrible action by killing Hachalu and other people belonging to Oromo people to instigate conflict between ethnic groups, destroy the country and dismantle our development plan,

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Screenshots of the original post (left) and the altered clip, taken on September 3, 2024 

The words “Hachalu and other” were removed in the altered clip.

At 3’18”, Abiy says: “I would like to express my deepest condolences on behalf of the FDRE government. The entire Ethiopian people will remember the attacks, which were all committed every June for the past three years. This June, a person who has never been directly involved in politics was targeted.”

The last two sentences were not included in the altered TikTok video.

During a public rally in June 2018, Abiy himself escaped a grenade attack (archived here). A coup attempt led to the death of the Amhara regional state president a year later (archived here). Hachalu was killed in June 2020. Abiy refers to these three events, each a year apart. 

On July 1, 2020, BBC Afaan Oromoo used a screenshot from the original video in a Facebook post about Abiy’s statement following Hachalu’s death (archived here).

AFP Fact Check searched for keywords related to “Abiy’s speech on killings in North Shewa/Salale”. No reports by local or international media could be found.

AFP Fact Check has previously debunked altered videos about the Ethiopian conflict here and here.