Ethiopian leader’s 2020 Tigray war speech falsely shared as announcement of attack by Eritrea
- Published on May 28, 2026 at 14:37
- 2 min read
- By Tolera FIKRU GEMTA, AFP Ethiopia
Declarations of military superiority have been a recurring theme on social media in Ethiopia and Eritrea as relations between the two countries remain strained. A video circulating on TikTok claims to show Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announcing that Eritrea has attacked Ethiopia. This is false: the clip uses edited footage from 2020, when Abiy announced the outbreak of war in the northern Tigray region.
The TikTok video, published on May 16, 2026, includes an English caption and text overlay in Amharic reading: “Breaking: Eritrea attacks Ethiopia.”
Shared more than 2,800 times, the post contains a 40-second clip of Abiy speaking on camera.
“I would like to inform the Ethiopian people that today we have begun defending ourselves against a war that has been waged against us and imposed on us,” he says.
“We are defending ourselves on multiple fronts to protect our property and territory, and we will continue to update the public on the operation in the coming days as necessary,” he adds.
Relations between the two countries have deteriorated markedly, with Addis Ababa accusing Asmara of making incursions into Ethiopian territory and collaborating with Fano rebels fighting the federal army in the northern Amhara region, allegations Eritrea denies (archived here).
In April, the Ethiopian government claimed to have proof that regional leaders in Tigray were forging alliances with Eritrea (archived here).
However, the clip shared on TikTok is old and unrelated to the diplomatic standoff in 2026.
Tigray war
AFP Fact Check conducted reverse image searches on keyframes from the video and found a longer version on YouTube published by the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation on November 4, 2020 (archived here).
“Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s press release on current affairs,” the video’s title reads in Amharic.
Several matching features can be seen in both the original footage and the TikTok clip, including Abiy’s attire, the grey background, and a microphone from Ethiopia’s state broadcaster ETV.
At no point in the original footage does Abiy mention Eritrea. Instead, he speaks about the devastating costs of war, the situation in Tigray before the conflict, and allegations that the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) had worked to undermine the country, along with other details related to the military operation.
“Dear fellow Ethiopians, the rogue and treasonous TPLF group carried out an unprovoked and unexpected attack against the defense forces last night,” he says at the beginning in Amharic. “Our government’s extraordinary patience in refraining from firing a single bullet has been exhausted by the group.”
Between 9’40” and 10’20”, Abiy gives updates about the war that he says was being waged by the TPLF against his people. It is from this section that the remarks heard in the TikTok video were taken.
On November 3, 2020, AFP reported on Abiy’s announcement of a military response following alleged TPLF attacks on federal military bases in Tigray (archived here). Eritrea allied with Ethiopia during the conflict.
The two-year Tigray war ended with the Pretorial deal in 2022 after killing more than 600,000 people (archived here and here).
AFP Fact Check has debunked several claims related to the renewed hostilities between Ethiopia and Eritrea here and here.
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