Doctored clip gives false impression Ethiopian leader asked citizens to pay off country’s debt
- Published on June 11, 2025 at 08:53
- 5 min read
- By Tolera FIKRU GEMTA, AFP Ethiopia
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The text accompanying the video post in Amharic reads: “Dear Ethiopians, please be ready to contribute cash for foreign debt repayment.”
“Guys make ready 71,000 each,” adds the text overlay on the video. The post was published on May 29, 2025, and has been shared more than 370 times.
It contains a clip more than a minute long in which Abiy is seen speaking at a gathering.
“Dear Ethiopians living in our country and Ethiopian citizens living in different foreign countries,” Abiy appears to say.
“We have reached a consensus that every Ethiopian should contribute to the repayment of Ethiopia's foreign debt.”
He continues: “Therefore, every Ethiopian and everyone who holds Ethiopian citizenship must contribute 71,000 Ethiopian Birr or 571 dollars. All Ethiopians need to support us to achieve our goals actively.”
Footage of a protest follows and then the video switches back to what appears to be Abiy’s speech.
“Concern for Ethiopia cannot be expressed through talks alone. Neither can media campaigns. Love for Ethiopia is best expressed through action.”
Abiy purportedly adds: “If you love Ethiopia and you care about Ethiopia, its foreign debt should be repaid immediately.”
Some users left angry comments.
“Didn’t you give Sudan 60 million dollars as a loan last time? It would have been better if you had paid part of the debt,” wrote one.
“Better sell the new extravagant palace and pay back the debt,” said another.
In November 2024, Ethiopia granted South Sudan a loan of more than $738 million (archived here). Abiy has also initiated a multi-billion-dollar project for building a new palace in Addis Ababa (archived here).
The posts were also shared here and here on Facebook.
Ethiopia’s debt
In July 2024, Ethiopia launched an economic reform programme by moving to market-determined exchange rates and introducing a new interest-based monetary policy (archived here).
As a result, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved $3.4 billion in aid.
The country is suffering from high foreign debt, with about $30 billion on the books this year. It has been negotiating with its creditors since 2021 to have part of the debt repayments cancelled (archived here).
In March 2025, the country reached an agreement in principle with its creditors to restructure part of its debt totalling $8.4 billion.
However, Abyi’s speech, in which he allegedly calls on his fellow citizens to contribute cash to repay the foreign debt, was created by artificial intelligence (AI).
Forensics centre launching
AFP Fact Check used the video verification tool InVID-WeVerify to conduct reverse image searches on keyframes from the video.
The results revealed that a longer video was published on the official YouTube channel of Gazette Plus, part of the Ethiopian News Agency (ENA), on November 16, 2024 (archived here).
This footage, more than 16 minutes long, shows a news report on the launch of a new Ethiopian federal police forensics centre of excellence.
“The Federal Police has been equipped with modern technologies as part of the ongoing reform,” reads the video's caption in Amharic.
The video begins with a news anchor discussing the reform of the federal police's security and intelligence, followed by a marching band performing in front of Abiy.
At 1’20”, Abiy begins speaking in Amharic and says: “The Federal Police Forensic Centre of Excellence that we are opening today is the result of the reforms we have carried out in the last five years.”
He adds: “We have worked tirelessly to modernise our country’s law enforcement agencies, organise them in terms of knowledge, human resources and technological advancement and realise the sustainability of our great country.”
Abiy says that the forensic centre is equipped with facilities that enable it to conduct DNA examinations and other investigations.
At no point does Abiy call on Ethiopians to contribute money to repay foreign debts. He does not address Ethiopia’s debt at all.
Artificially-generated speech
The false Facebook post used two segments from Abiy’s original speech – at 5’03”-5’28” and 11’40”-11’51” – and replaced them with artificially created audio.
While the words are spoken in Amharic, the accent is irregular, as are the pronunciations of some words. For example, “Ethiopia” and “Ethiopian” are pronounced as “Utubia” and “Utubian”.
There are also clear discrepancies between the words and Abiy’s lip movements. For example, Abiy’s mouth barely moves when he says “..every Ethiopian and everyone who holds Ethiopian citizenship..”.
AFP Fact Check also ran the audio through an audio deepfake detector called DeepfakeTotal.
The results showed a more than 85 percent probability that the audio was artificially created.
AFP Fact Check has previously debunked AI-generated videos on a range of topics in Ethiopia, such as here, here and here.
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