By Naol Getachew
Claim: An X account shared a video with the caption “Breaking: Fano/Amhara forces captured 100+ ENDF Oromo soldiers after several days of fighting.”
Verdict: False.
On June 5, 2024, an X account named Amhara News Service, with over 14,200 followers, shared a video with the caption “Breaking; Fano/Amhara forces captured 100+ ENDF Oromo soldiers after several days of fighting.” The post was retweeted over 190 times and received more than 31,000 views. The tweet garnered over 170 reposts, over 478 likes, and more than 33,000 views by the time this article was published.
However, the footage is actually from the “Northern Ethiopia war” (the war in Tigray ), which erupted on November 3, 2020, between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). The war ended on November 2, 2022, when a peace agreement, commonly called the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (CoHA) was signed by both parties in Pretoria, South Africa.
MFC examined the video using reverse image search tools. However, due to the low quality of the video, finding its source through reverse image search proved difficult.
To further investigate, we searched YouTube using the Amharic keyword “የተማረኩ” (Captured). This led us to a video clip containing the same footage as the one shared on X.
The video was shared on a YouTube channel named Marda Times on Sep 25, 2022.
Based on this information, the post shared by the X account claiming that the video shows 100+ ENDF (Ethiopian National Defense Force) soldiers captured by Fano is false.
Context
The conflict in the Amhara region, which began in April 2023, is part of a broader pattern of instability and violence in Ethiopia. The conflict was triggered by the Ethiopian military’s raid on the Amhara region to disarm regional forces and the Fano militiamen. This action sparked resistance and clashes with the Fano militiamen, who claimed to capture towns in the region forcing the federal government to take further military action. The situation remains tense, leading to death of civilians, causing significant damage to properties, and displacing hundreds of thousands of people. This post, which falsely claims to show footage of a conflict in the Amhara region, is part of a larger trend of misinformation and disinformation circulating online in relation to the ongoing conflict in Ethiopia.
