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 The image is outdated and unrelated to the current conflict in Amhara.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However, the image is outdated and unrelated to the ongoing conflict in Amhara Region – the conflict that erupted in April 2023 between the Ethiopian government and Fano militants.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However, this image too is outdated and unrelated to the current conflict in Amhara.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. 

The post Image of Captured Soldier Not Fit the Claim appeared first on MultiFactCheck.

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Claims: A social media account with close to 20K followers claimed that the Fano Militiamen confiscated weapons and surrendered Ethiopian soldiers

Verdict: MFC found the claim to be False

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On February 26, 2024, a post surfaced on X (formerly Twitter) from an account named “Central Command of Amhara Fano- official page!” — with over 19,000 followers — claiming that the Fano militiamen seized weapons from the Ethiopian army and captured its soldiers. 

The post, written in Amharic, purports to deliver a “Breaking News,” which reads: “We carried out a surprise attack that shocked Abiy and his Oromummaa Generals in Shewa Menz and Jiru [woreda of the Amahra Regional State].” The post adds stating, “We captured 1 ZU-23, 2 Mortars, 9 DShK, 12 Bren and 12 snipers along with many soldiers. Victory to Fano”. By the time this article was written the post had views of over 18,000 and more than 200 reposts (see below screenshot). 

Image1: A screenshot of a Twitter account that claimed the Fano militiamen seized weapons from the Ethiopian government

However MultiFactCheck (MFC) has confirmed that the images used to support the claim are old and have been shared previously on different social media platforms.

A Reverse Image Search results of the picture at the left and top-right, which shows weapons and ammunition, indicated that both images were posted on the Facebook page that claimed to be of the Amhara Region Police Commission on February 7, 2024 (see below screenshot). The headline of the post reads: “Illegal firearms originating from Messebo Cement Factory in Mekelle, were seized in Woldia city.” 

Image2: A screenshot of a claimed to be of the Amhara Police Commission that stated an illegal firearms from Tigray Region was caught in Amhara Region

Another Reverse Image Search for the picture at the bottom-right, which shows men in what seems to be a military uniform, found that the image was taken from a TikTok video on September 10, 2023, from an account named Amhara Wisdom (see below screenshot).

Image3: A Screenshot captured from the TikTok video

MFC examined the post and confirmed that the images don’t support the claim that Fano has seized weapons and soldiers. Therefore the post is rated False.

Since  April 2023, a deadly armed conflict has been ongoing in Amhara, Ethiopia’s second most populous Regional State, between the Ethiopian Defense Forces (ENDF) and the Fano militiamen. The conflict erupted following the federal government’s decision to dissolve all regional security forces it armed, including Fano — a move that was not to the liking of the militiamen. The above mentioned post was, thus, shared in this context.

The post Fano Militiamen Claim of Seizing Weapons and Soldiers Debunked appeared first on MultiFactCheck.

Yet the program has been still active on social media platforms, e.g., Wollo Mizan (with 363K views) and individual accounts – one being on the twitter account of the program producer, Habtamu Ayalewu (with more than 35.2K views). 

Therefore, judging from the content (which narrates about the “Amhara holocaust and genocide” conducted by the “Oromo-led government”) and the context (its audiences being people in Ethiopia and in the diaspora) of the program, the MFC took the initiative to go a bit deeper to look at what content of the program makes it ‘partly false information’ as Facebook had established. 

1. The program producers used a voice cloning tool that depicts a news reader storytelling how the “Oromo-led government of Abiy is conducting holocaust and genocide against the Amhara people” (listen from 1:15:12 – 1:16:26 on this link). MFC judges the usage of such tool has the potential to deceive audience/followers so that they believe the news readers, who were depicted as English-speaking foreigners, are real persons working in media corporation.
2. The other is the usage of wrong picture in the video that depicted bruised legs (see the middle picture below or watch it from this link @ 1:15:58). This picture depicts two Oromo women heavily bruised in the hand of Ethiopian government forces, according to Bultum Broadcasting services (BBS). Although it might be difficult to establish if these two women were Oromos or not, and if they were at all “tortured” by security forces or not, using a picture from 2020 as if the “torture” happened in 2023 misleads people (see BBS shared picture above). 

Thus, based on voice cloning and using wrong pictures, MFC verdicts the stated content as misleading. 

The post Ethio 360’s Usage of Voice Cloning and Wrong Picture is Misleading  appeared first on MultiFactCheck.