Old video shows protests in Eritrea in 2017, not in 2025
- Published on December 31, 2025 at 11:18
- 2 min read
- By Tolera FIKRU GEMTA, AFP Ethiopia
Strained relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea have shown little sign of easing, including online. A video circulating in Ethiopia claims to show protests taking place in Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, in December 2025. But this is misleading: the video is more than eight years old, and there are no credible reports of similar protests occurring in Asmara in December 2025.
A post shared on Facebook on December 21, 2025, contains Amharic text that reads: “Protests have emerged in Eritrea, Asmara. The Shabia regime, a city-based mafia, will end soon.”
“Shabia” is a term commonly used to refer to Eritrea’s ruling party.
The post contains 74 seconds of footage from an Al-Jazeera broadcast.
“Opposition group said 28 people have been killed in Asmara, and more than 100 people injured,” the news presenter says.
The footage includes Al-Jazeera’s news logo along with a text headline that reads: “ERITREA PROTESTS: REPORTS 28 PEOPLE KILLED.”
“A spokesman for the Red Sea Afar Democratic Organisation said the protest was sparked by the government's attempt to close a Muslim community school,” the presenter adds.
The first 25 seconds of the footage show people protesting in the street.
This is followed by a comment from a director of a human rights group called Release Eritrea, who says that “the government response was very heavy-handed”.
On December 12, 2025, the UN urged both countries to respect each other’s territorial integrity after months of diplomatic feuding between the old foes (archived here and here).
However, the video does not show protests in Asmara in 2025.
2017 protests
AFP Fact Check used InVID-WeVerify to conduct reverse image searches on keyframes from the video.
The results led to an old news report by Al-Jazeera that was uploaded to YouTube in 2017 (archived here).
The content and length of both videos are similar.
The report shows protests that took place in Asmara at the time, during which Eritrean security forces reportedly killed at least 28 people.
The original context of the video is explained in this Al-Jazeera article titled “Eritrea Opposition: security forces kill 28 protesters” (archived here).
It describes demonstrations against the Eritrean government and the subsequent crackdown by security forces.
Keyword searches found no evidence from credible media outlets of similar protests happening in Asmara in December 2025.
Disinformation promoted by supporters of both states has spread widely on social media; AFP Fact Check has debunked several false claims here and here.
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