Posts falsely claim Ethiopian prime minister was killed by a sniper’s bullet

This article is more than one year old.
Published on June 15, 2021 at 15:39
3 min read
By Amanuel NEGUEDE, AFP Ethiopia

A Facebook post shared in Ethiopia claims to cite a news report from the state-owned Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC / ETV) announcing the assassination of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. The claim is false; Abiy is alive and has attended two inauguration ceremonies in his country’s capital Addis Ababa since the claim started circulating online.

The Facebook post, archived here, has been shared more than 40 times and since it was published on June 3, 2021.

Written in Amharic, the translated caption reads in part: “Dr. Abiy has been killed”, referring to Ethiopia’s prime minister.

Screenshot of the false claim on Facebook, taken June 14, 2021

The post includes three images: the main one shows Abiy in a vehicle with French President Emmanuel Macron; the second picture in the top-right corner is a headshot of Debretsion Gebremichael, the leader of Ethiopia's dissident Tigray region; and the final image below it shows a burning candle.

“Abiy has been shot twice in the head by an unknown sniper while he was driving in his personal vehicle around Beherawi neighborhood”, the translated caption further reads.

The image of Debretsion also contains a question mark, inferring that he might be the one behind the purported assassination.

After military operations were launched by Abiy’s federal government against Tigray in November 2020, Debretsion fled the region’s northern capital, Mekelle.

Map showing the Tigray region in Ethiopia

The ongoing conflict has left more than 90 percent of people in the region needing emergency food aid, according to the United Nations, while Abiy has received international criticism amid the crisis.

However, the claim that Ethiopian state-owned media announced the death of Abiy is false; the prime minister has appeared in public at least twice since the Facebook post was published.

Telecom signing ceremony

In May 2021, Ethiopia granted an operating licence to a consortium of telecommunications firms, including Kenya's Safaricom, Vodafone and Vodacom, for $850 million, ending the government’s monopoly on the sector.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta (L) and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed at the signing ceremony on June 8, 2021 (Photo: Eduardo SOTERAS/ AFP)

During the signing ceremony in Addis Ababa on June 9, 2020, Abiy and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta took to the stage and discussed the infusion of cash, jobs and infrastructure investment expected to flow from the new licence. Abiy addressed guests at the event, which was recorded and published on his official YouTube page.

Abiy also inaugurated the new Meskel Square in the Ethiopian capital on June 13, 2021 and, again, videos of the ceremony were published on the Office of the Prime Minister's official YouTube page.

Abiy Ahmed unveils a plaque at the Meskel Square inauguration in Addis Ababa on June 13, 2021 (Photo: Amanuel SILESHI / AFP)

AFP Fact Check searched for the purported news report on EBC’s official social media accounts and websites but was unable to trace it.

In February 2021, AFP Fact Check debunked a similar false post claiming Abiy was either dead or in critical condition.

Is there content that you would like AFP to fact-check? Get in touch.

E-mail