Old video shows Eritrean troops returning from Ethiopia, not heading to war
- Published on March 31, 2025 at 15:19
- 4 min read
- By Tolera FIKRU GEMTA, AFP Ethiopia
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Rising military tensions between neighbours Ethiopia and Eritrea have put the Horn of Africa region on edge. A Facebook video of trucks filled with soldiers has been shared with a claim that the footage shows the Eritrean army recently crossing into Ethiopia. However, this is false: the footage is more than two years old and shows Eritrean troops returning home after completing a military operation in Ethiopia during the Tigray war, which ended in November 2022.
The post, published in Afaan Oromoo on March 23, 2025, opens with the words “breaking news”.
The post claims: “At this moment, the Eritrean army has crossed the Ethiopian border and is marching towards Tigray. The Eritrean army has made an agreement with the TDF and Fano forces and is on its way to Tigray to fight the Ethiopian federal army.”
Tigray is a region in northern Ethiopia bordering Eritrea. TDF refers to the Tigray Defence Forces, a paramilitary group that fought against Ethiopia during the two-year Tigray war that ended in November 2022 following a peace deal signed in Pretoria. Fano is a paramilitary group in the Amhara region that has been at war with the Ethiopian army since July 2023.
The post contains a minute-long video showing soldiers being transported through a town while people wave at them from the roadside.
Similar posts were also shared on Facebook here and here.
Regional tension
Tensions between rival factions within the TDF are threatening the fragile peace deal in Tigray and raising the prospect of a new war between Ethiopia and Eritrea (archived here and here).
In this context, the post claims the Eritrean army crossed the border and joined forces with the TDF and Fano to fight against Ethiopia.
Although the Eritrean army was Abiy's ally during the Tigray War, relations between the two countries have deteriorated (archived here).
According to a report on March 25, 2025, Eritrea called on young people to enlist in the army, while Ethiopia deployed troops in the border area (archived here).
However, the footage does not show the Eritrean army crossing the Ethiopian border in March 2025.
Army return
AFP Fact Check used the video verification tool InVID-WeVerify to conduct reverse image searches on keyframes from the footage.
The results show that the footage was published on Facebook more than two years ago, on January 25, 2023. It was originally more than three minutes long (archived here).
The footage is captioned in Tigrigna, a language spoken in Eritrea and in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. It translates to: “A proud welcome to the hero of the Eritrean Defence Forces after their successful return from the peacekeeping operation.”
The same video was also shared here on Facebook on the same date (archived here).
At the time, several international media outlets (here, here and here) reported on the withdrawal of Eritrean forces from Ethiopia following the signing of the peace agreement in Pretoria, which ended the Tigray war (archived here, here and here).
The clip in the false post corresponds to a segment of the original video from 2’25” to 3’25”.
A comparison of the vehicles in the videos shows they bear Eritrean flags and identical banners in Amharic reading: “The joint Ethiopian-Eritrean army is a foundation for African peace, and the unity of Ethiopia and Eritrea shall be strengthened.”
This refers to the Eritrean alliance with the Ethiopian government during the Tigray war.
Despite the growing tensions, there have been no credible reports of Eritrean forces recently crossing the Ethiopian border.
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