A Facebook page with over 200 thousand followers made a post on Dec 11, 2022, captioned “Morocco is celebrating with two flags.” The post presented an image that shows the Moroccan national team displaying the flag of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and rejoicing after a match.
By the time this article is published, the post had more than half a thousand reactions and was shared sixteen times.
However, HaqCheck inspected the post and confirmed that the image doesn’t support the claim. Thus, HaqCheck rendered the image Altered.
The flag used in the post belongs to the ONLF (Ogaden National Liberation Front). The politico-military organization, ONLF was established in 1984 seeking the national self-determination right of the Ethiopian Somali region. ONLF had been fighting the Ethiopian regime since 1994.
The Ethiopian ruling party underwent reform and picked a new prime minister in 2018 in a bid to reverse the widespread popular uprising across the country. The newly elected Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed called upon armed groups and exiled political organizations to return to Ethiopia and resort to a peaceful struggle. Considering the call by Prime Minister, on Aug 12, 2018, the ONLF declared a unilateral ceasefire and returned back to Ethiopia.
Since then, the ONLF has remained politically active in the country and is one of the prominent opposition parties in the Somali regional state.
The FIFA World Cup, commonly referred to as the World Cup, is a periodic international football competition contested by the senior men’s national teams of the members of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA). Since its commencement in 1930, the tournament has been held every four years, with the exception of 1942 and 1946, when it was canceled due to the Second World War.
The 22 round of the FIFA World Cup is currently being held in Qatar. The tournament was opened on Nov 20 and will stay till Dec 18, 2022.
The Moroccan national football team has reached the Qatar FIFA World Cup semi-final as the first African Arab country. After their victory against Spain, the Moroccan team raised the Palestinian flag.
The claim that the Moroccan football team displayed the ONLF flag during the FIFA World Cup in Qatar appeared in the backdrop of this situation.
In an effort of verifying the claim, we used a google reverse image search. As a result, HaqCheck found the original image posted on different websites and social media platforms. The original image shows the Moroccan players displaying the Palestinian flag after a match in the 2022 FIFA World Cup being held in Qatar.
HaqCheck also found a video clip published on YouTube of the Moroccan players raising the Palestinian flag after their win against Spain on Dec 6, 2022.
Link,Therefore, HaqCheck confirmed that the post was false and rated the image Altered.
