Altered video falsely claims Ethiopian PM watched opposition politician call government a failure

Since late December 2024, Ethiopian politician Jawar Mohammed has been promoting his memoirs in Europe and talking about political crises at home that he blames on Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. A video published on Facebook purports to show Abiy watching one of Jawar’s critical speeches on a laptop. However, this is false; AFP Fact Check found that an image of Abiy taken in 2020 during an online discussion with East African leaders was altered. The clip of Jawar speaking in Amsterdam was added to the laptop’s screen to make it appear as though Abiy was watching a live event.

A Facebook post published in Afaan Oromoo on December 31, 2024, reads: “This is amazing. Abiy Ahmed is watching Jawar’s speech.”

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Screenshot of the altered post, taken on January 02, 2024 

Jawar Mohammed is an influential Ethiopian opposition politician who was a leading organiser of the Oromo protests that were instrumental in bringing Abiy to power in 2018. The two men have since fallen out.

The post, shared more than 1,000 times, contains a clip of Abiy seated at a small table with a laptop that appears to show footage of Jawar criticising the Ethiopian leader and his administration. 

The video runs for more than three minutes and begins with Jawar addressing a gathering. “Let me explain to you why I said that we are not compelled to overthrow the government,” Jawar says.

“The armed conflicts conducted in Tigray, Amhara and Oromia have already paralysed state institutions. The economy has already collapsed, the bureaucracy is paralysed.”

He continues: “The armed groups have already destroyed the lower level government structures. Top officials, including the prime minister and his cabinet, have already been split. By closing the political space, the prime minister has surrounded himself with the people who follow his rule.”

Jawar then says that not only has Ethiopia’s economy been significantly weakened by the armed conflicts, but that the government’s diplomatic relations with neighbouring countries are also in turmoil.

Abiy is motionless throughout the clip; only the laptop screen is animated.

Book tour

Jawar spent 18 months in prison after being charged with terrorism in connection with clashes that followed the June 2020 shooting of pop star Hachalu Hundessa (archived here). 

He was released along with other opposition figures in January 2022 and left Ethiopia, recently living in Kenya’s capital Nairobi where he wrote his memoirs titled “I Will Not Regret” in Afaan Oromoo and Amharic (archived here). 

Since the end of December 2024, Jawar has been promoting his book and meeting members of the diaspora in various European countries where he has been vocal about Ethiopia’s political upheaval.

However, the video claiming to show Abiy watching Jawar describing the collapse of the Ethiopian state is altered. 

Amsterdam talk

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

The search results led to Jawar’s original speech published on YouTube on December 29, 2024 (archived here). 

More than an hour long, the video shows Jawar addressing a gathering of Ethiopians in Amsterdam as part of his book tour.

AFP Fact Check found the excerpt that was used in the altered video.

The segment in question can be seen from 22’08” to 25’15” in the original video. Both the words and Jawar’s appearance on screen are exact matches. 

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Comparison of screenshots of the original video (top) and the altered footage, taken on January 3. 2025. 

Furthermore, a reverse image search reveals why Abiy appears static in the altered video; his likeness was taken from a picture originally published along with others on his official X account on March 30, 2020. 

“During our virtual discussion with IGAD leaders we noted the importance of collective leadership as a means of withstanding the challenges #COVID19 is posing globally,” reads the post (archived here). 

IGAD stands for Intergovernmental Authority on Development, an East African regional organisation.

In the original image, the laptop screen shows the various IGAD heads of state who were part of the virtual call with Abiy, meaning the clip of Jawar speaking in Amsterdam was digitally added to it. 

AFP Fact Check has debunked other altered videos linked to the Ethiopian conflict here, here and here.