By Naol Getachew
Claim: An X account claimed that “members of the 51st Regiment were destroyed in today’s battle and that the pictured individuals were captured during an operation in Gondar.”
Verdict: False. The image is outdated and unrelated to the current conflict in Amhara.
An X account named “የአማራ ፋኖ ጠቅላይ እዝ Official Page!” with over 21,000 followers shared an image with an Amharic caption in which a soldier appears to narrate that they could not anymore fight against the Fano militiamen and members of the 51st Regiment were destroyed in a battle. The tweet gave an impression also that the pictured individual(s) was (were) captured during an operation in Gondar, a city located to the north of the Amhara Regional State. The post received over 87 retweets and 8,000 views(see image below).
However, the image is outdated and unrelated to the ongoing conflict in Amhara Region – the conflict that erupted in April 2023 between the Ethiopian government and Fano militants. MFC observed that the aforementioned Twitter account repeatedly spreads disinformation.
Three weeks ago, on May 2, the same image was shared by a Facebook account named Mereja Tv, which has over 1.2 million followers. The post claimed that the image was related to the current conflict in Amhara, which is untrue (see image below).
However, this image too is outdated and unrelated to the current conflict in Amhara.
A Google Reverse Image Search reveals the image was first shared on social media on October 30, 2021, by a social media account named Stalin Gebreselassie. This individual is known for expressing support for the TPLF/TDF – a political party and an armed group – during the war in Tigray region of Ethiopia. Currently, he is based in Washington DC, USA, and works at Zara Media Network, a media that he reportedly founded.
Based on the result of the tool we used, MFC confirmed that the image shared by the X account claiming that “members of the 51st Regiment were destroyed in today’s battle and that the pictured individual(s) was (were) captured during an operation in Gondar” is false.
Context
The conflict in Amhara Regional State began in April 2023 when the Ethiopian military raided the Amhara region to disarm regional special forces and Fano militias – who disregarded the government’s announcement of disarming and integrating them into its formal security forces. This sparked resistance with the Fano Militiamen, finally leading to clashes with the federal government’s military forces. The situation remains tense, which has been resulting in death of civilians, causing significant damage to properties, and displacing hundreds of thousands people. Thus, the post has been circulating in this context.
