By Rehobot Ayalew
Claim
A viral post circulating on TikTok claims to show a massive, surging flood occurring in Gamo, Ethiopia. The 27-second clip depicts a car being swept away with high-velocity floodwaters rushing through an area with a brick roadside ditch, implying this is the result of the landslides and rains that hit the Gamo Zone in March 2026.
Verdict
False. While the Gamo Zone has recently faced a real and devastating humanitarian crisis due to landslides and flooding, the specific video shared in this post is a false context. The footage is old and was filmed in a different geographic location prior to the current events in Ethiopia.
How the Claim Spread
The video was uploaded to TikTok during the second week of March 2026, just as news began to break regarding the landslides in Southern Ethiopia. The text written in Amharic, at the top of the video, reads “ The flood that happened today in Arbaminch”. In addition to this at the bottom of the video, it suggests that the audience follow the page to get fast information and requests to DM for those who want to buy a TikTok account.
In respect to rapid spread, by the time this fact-check is written, the video has got over 295 k views and thousands of likes.
Investigation and Findings
MFC conducted a reverse image search of keyframes from the TikTok post. Our investigation traced back the footage and found it in different sources, stating it was filmed in Islamabad, Pakistan, during a flood dating back to July 22, 2025.
In this regard, the same footage was shared by social media users on platforms like Facebook and outlets like DailyMotion, 8 months ago in July 2025. (Refer to the screenshots below for verification).
Context
The Gamo Zone in South Ethiopia Regional State is indeed experiencing a catastrophic series of landslides and floods due to heavy rain on March 9 and 10, 2026.
The governor of the South Ethiopia Regional state, Tilahun Kebede, had offered his condolences to the affected families in a statement on Facebook. According to the Regional Government, as of March 16, 2026, the disaster has displaced 2,067 households consisting of more than 11,000 family members. The death toll had risen to 125 people.
The landslides have physically altered the landscape, blocking key public transport routes and secondary roads. This has severely complicated rescue efforts, as many of the affected communities are located in remote, mountainous terrains that are now inaccessible by vehicle.
Conclusion
The TikTok video claiming to show a flood in Gamo is False. While the humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia is real, the visual evidence provided in the post is actually from an old video from July 2025, from a flood in Islamabad, Pakistan. By using old footage of a different type of disaster, the post misleads the public about the nature of the crisis in Gamo Zone.
Consequently, MFC rates the claim as False and urges social media users to rely on official updates from the relevant authorities and verified news outlets.
