Blaze from 2025 misrepresented as Iranian strike on US embassy in Addis Ababa
- Published on March 6, 2026 at 17:06
- 3 min read
- By Tolera FIKRU GEMTA, AFP Ethiopia
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has expressed solidarity with Qatar after Iran’s retaliatory strikes across the Gulf broadened its ongoing war with the US and Israel. A video circulating in Ethiopia claims to show the Iranian bombing of the US embassy in the capital, Addis Ababa. However, this is false; the footage is more than a year old and shows a building that caught fire in the city of Harar.
A TikTok post published on March 2, 2026, with an Amharic text overlay, reads: “Iran has attacked the American embassy in Addis Ababa with a missile.”
The caption in the post, shared more than 3,000 times before it was deleted, repeats the claim.
Comments from users were mixed. “Your mission will not be achieved in Ethiopia. God protects Ethiopia and its people,” one user wrote in Amharic.
“Iran is a hero,” said another. “She is shaking up the entire world. Inevitably, she will reach out to us.”
The same clip was shared on Facebook on March 3, 2026, and claimed in Amharic: “Iran has bombed the American embassy in Addis Ababa with a missile. This is fine to me; Iran is smart.”
The claim began circulating following a call between Abiy and Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on March 2, 2026, when Abiy expressed solidarity with Qatar after Iran’s retaliatory strikes on Gulf states (archived here).
Iranian forces claimed they had "complete control" of the Strait of Hormuz -- a vital route for world oil and gas supplies, after President Donald Trump said the US Navy was ready to escort oil tankers through the channel (archived here).
AFP reported on March 6, 2026, that Israel carried out heavy strikes against Tehran, hitting "regime infrastructure" in a "new phase" of the war. An Israeli attack in Lebanon against Iran-backed Hezbollah militants killed more than 120 people (archived here).
However, the footage on TikTok is old and unrelated to the Middle East war.
Old video
AFP Fact Check used InVID-WeVerify to conduct reverse image searches on keyframes from the footage. The results led to a TikTok post published on February 1, 2025, featuring the same clip (archived here).
“The fire accident occurred in Harar city, in the area commonly known as Giberana Square at the Giyorgis road. The fire was brought under control through community efforts after completely destroying a carpenter’s workshop in the area,” the accompanying caption in Amharic reads.
@umar_binabdulaziz የእሳት አደጋውን መቆጣጠር ተችሏል~ ሐረር በተለምዶ ግብርና ማዞሪያ ተብሎ የሚጠራው አካባቢ የእሳት አደጋ ተከስቷል!!!! ወደ ጊዮርጊስ መገንጠያ ላይ በሚገኘው እንጨት ቤት ላይ ከፍተኛ አደጋ ሲያደርስ ወደ አካባቢው ሳይዛመት በሕብረተሰቡና በእሳት አደጋ ሰራተኞች ለመቆጣጠር ተችላል። #ምስጋና♬ original sound - Umar Bin Abdul Aziz
The video, posted by an account with more than 120,000 followers, frequently publishes content about Ethiopia’s Harar city.
The clip was also shared on Facebook on the same day and in the same context (archived here).
Although the footage was recorded at night, visible features in the video -- including trees, power lines and building structures -- do not match the surroundings of the US embassy.
A comparison of the footage with images of the embassy from Google Earth corroborates this.
An AFP reporter in Addis Ababa confirmed that there was no attack on the US embassy, nor have there been credible reports or statements from official sources.
AFP Fact Check has debunked other false claims about embassies struck by Iranian missiles.
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