By Naol Getachew
Claim: A Facebook account shared a video of a damaged papaya farm in Tigray regional state of Ethiopia, claiming that the destruction was caused by “Shabiya” – a reference often used for a ruling party in Eritrea.
Verdict: False. The video is not from Tigray.
On June 1, 2024, a Facebook account named “Habesha Habesha” shared a video that shows a damaged papaya farm with the caption: “This is what ‘Shabiya’ [the ruling party in Eritrea] did in Tigray.” The video garnered more than 970 reactions, over 1,000 shares, and over 330,000 views until this article is published.
However, the video is not from Tigray.
MFC examined the video using Fake News Debunker by InVID & We Verify to detect the authenticity of the claim InVID provided keyframes from the video, which MFC then checked through Google Reverse Image Search.
Image: Screenshot taken from InVID Keyframs
The results showed that the video is circulating on social media with a Hindi caption claiming that “The storm destroyed 99% of the papaya crop” in India.
Therefore, the video is actually from Tamil Nadu, a State in South India.
TIMES NOW, an English media outlet in India, and News18 India have reported that on May 29, 2024, thousands of papaya trees were damaged due to strong winds in Tamil Nadu, a state in the extreme south of India. The report further stated that the Tamil Nadu experienced heavy rainfall in recent days.
Image: Screenshot taken from News18 India Facebook page
Image: Screenshot taken from TIMES NOW Facebook page
Based on this information, MFC confirms that the video shared by the Facebook account claiming that the video shows the destruction of papaya farm caused by “Shabiya” in Tigray is false.
Context
In November 2020, fighting broke out between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), a regional political party in Tigray, a region located north of Ethiopia bordering with Eritrea. Reports shows that the Eritrean forces entered the conflict supporting the Ethiopian government.
Eritrean forces (aka Shabiya) were accused of committing atrocities against civilians in Tigray, including extrajudicial killings, rape, and torture. The involvement of Eritrean forces in the conflict reportingly further complicated the situation and made it more difficult to resolve.
A ceasefire was declared in March 2022, but the conflict has not been fully resolved. Eritrean forces remain in Tigray, and there are ongoing reports of human rights abuses.
Thus, the post claiming that the Eritrean forces destroyed the papaya farm in Tigray circulates in this context.
