Clip shows Indian doctor, not Egyptian diplomat, visiting Ethiopia’s Tigray region
- Published on October 24, 2025 at 14:37
- 3 min read
- By Tolera FIKRU GEMTA, AFP Ethiopia
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Ethiopia recently accused Eritrea of collaborating with rebels from the northern Tigray region amid increasing instability in the Horn of Africa and neighbouring countries. A clip widely circulating in Ethiopia claims to show a diplomat from Egypt visiting Tigray after entering the region from Eritrea, suggesting collaboration between Ethiopia’s diplomatic rivals. However, the claim is false: the video shows an Indian surgeon who visited Tigray to provide medical training and treatment.
The post contains text in Amharic that claims an “Egyptian Ambassador entered Mekelle via Eritrea”.
The purported ambassador is not identified, nor is the country where he is supposedly posted.
Mekelle is the capital of the Tigray region. Tigray shares borders with Eritrea, a country that gained its independence from Ethiopia in 1993.
The clip was posted on Facebook on October 16, 2025, and has been shared more than 600 times.
The 8-second video shows leaders of the Tigray region, including its President Tadesse Werede and others, standing in a group and speaking with an individual who appears to be a foreigner.
An arrow in the video points to the individual, designating him as the “Egyptian ambassador”.
In the background, a man is seen wearing a vest with the words “Dejen Hospital Security” on the back.
Similar posts were also shared here and here on Facebook.
Mounting tensions
Tensions between Ethiopia and Egypt remain high following the inauguration of Ethiopia’s Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on September 9, 2025, which drew protests from its downstream neighbour (archived here).
AFP also reported that the Ethiopian government recently accused the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) of collaborating with Eritrea to actively prepare for war against Ethiopia (archived here).
Ethiopia’s federal army and the TPLF fought a bloody two-year war that claimed up to 600,000 lives before it ended with a peace deal in November 2022 (archived here).
Eritrea dismissed the latest accusation and condemned Ethiopia for “provocative sabre-rattling” (archived here).
The clip was shared as alleged evidence of secret cooperation between Tigrayan leaders, Eritrean officials, and an Egyptian diplomat illegally visiting Mekelle without approval from Ethiopia’s federal government.
However, the claim is false.
Indian doctor
AFP Fact Check used InVID-WeVerify to conduct reverse image searches on keyframes from the video.
The search provided numerous results, including a post in Tigirinya and English on X indicating that the individual seen in the clip is an Indian doctor named Arvind Verma Jangid (archived here).
ኣምባሳደር ግብፂ ብኤርትራ ገይሩ ንትግራይ ኣይኣተወን። እቲ ዝባሃል ዘሎ ስብኣይ ህንዳዊ ዶክተር ናይ ዓፅሚ ባዓል ሞያ ዶ/ር አርቨንድ ቬርማ እዩ። Egyptian Ambassador didn't come to #Mekelle, #Tigrai. The man in the images & clip is Indian, Dr. Ervend Verma left pic.twitter.com/DXXukntLFO
— Tigrai Online (@tigraionline) October 16, 2025
A keyword search for Arvind Verma Jangid shows he is listed on several medical websites, such as here and here (archived here and here).
These describe him as an orthopaedic surgeon in the city of Indore in west-central India.
Jangid shared multiple photos from his trip to Mekelle on Facebook here and here (archived here and here).
He wrote: “I am delighted to share that I have successfully completed 109 complex Ilizarov surgeries — all on patients who had previously undergone multiple unsuccessful operations — here in Ethiopia, Africa.”
Ilizarov surgery is an orthopaedic procedure that uses an external fixator device to lengthen, reshape, or reconstruct bones.
Although the clip shared in the false post was filmed from a side angle, the individual’s appearance and clothing clearly match photos from Jangid’s own posts.
Ayder Hospital at Mekelle University also shared a similar report on its official Facebook page, stating that the university hosted basic Ilizarov and limb reconstruction training to strengthen orthopaedic expertise in Ethiopia (archived here).
The report further stated that the programme featured Jangid, “a renowned limb lengthening and reconstruction surgeon” from India, who conducted training and provided specialised surgical care at Dejen Hospital in Mekelle.
Again, the photos included in Ayder Hospital’s report correspond to the same individual seen in the clip.
In the hospital’s photos, Jangid is dressed differently, but his features more clearly match the person shown in the clip.
AFP Fact Check contacted Jangid, who confirmed that the person in the clip was him.
“Yes, it is me,” Jangid told AFP Fact Check, adding, “We were discussing the treatment of injured patients with Tigray leaders”.
He further confirmed the location where the clip was recorded. “The video was captured at Dejen Hospital, Mekelle, during the launching ceremony for the limb reconstruction campaign.”
He said that he provided surgical care for patients and trained local doctors.
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