September week two disinformation summary
Claims related to detention and editing old posts Throughout the week, there were claims and controversies on Ethiopian social media over the detention of ethnic Amharas across various parts of the country. Images circulated on social media with claims that they showed recently detained ethnic Amharas, but HaqCheck could not confirm whether the images were…
September week one summary
Soldiers being transported to the Amhara region On August 26, 2023, an X (Twitter) account shared an image that they claimed showed Ethiopian military personnel being transported by helicopter to the Amhara region amid the ongoing conflict. Despite the Ethiopian government’s recapture of many areas, including major cities, from Fano militia groups in the Amhara…
August week three summary
False Image of Aerial Attack in Finote Selam A Facebook page with over 40,000 followers posted an image claiming that the Ethiopian government had recently conducted an aerial attack in Finote Selam, resulting in the deaths of 270 civilians, including children as young as three. The post went viral on the platform, garnering nearly 30…
August week two summary
Fano militants captured Ethiopian army soldiers A Facebook page with over 300,000 followers shared an image claiming to show an Ethiopian army soldier who had recently surrendered to Fano militants. The post was shared close to 200 times and received over 1,700 reactions. The claim came amid intensified fighting between the Ethiopian military and Fano…
August week one summary
False image claimed to show rifles seized by Fano militants A Facebook post with over 90,000 followers claimed that Ethiopian army troops entered Shewa Yifat in the Amhara regional state to disarm Fano militia groups, but were defeated and retreated, abandoning weapons. The post was accompanied by an image that was falsely claimed to show…
July week three summary
In the third week of July 2023, several disinformation and controversial claims circulated on social media platforms regarding the ongoing conflicts in the Amhara region of Ethiopia. False claim of Fano militants capturing weapons A Facebook post on July 10 claimed that Fano militants in the Debre Elias Woreda seized over 15 rifles from local…
July Week One Summary
UNICEF Job Advertisement Scam A job advertisement claiming that UNICEF is hiring 2,800 workers in 6 regions of Ethiopia has been circulating widely on social media. The advertisement asks for 100 Birr for the registration application form and urges potential applicants to pay the fee in advance via CBE Birr or Telebir. Later on, the…
June week three information disorder summary
Armed fighting in Gojjam, Amhara HaqCheck found and investigated an image-backed claim posted on Facebook on June 16, 2023. The Facebook post, sharing a picture, claimed that there was armed fighting between Fano militias and the Ethiopian military troops in Eastern Gojjam, Amhara region. The viral Facebook claim added that the Ethiopian troops deployed into…
June week two summary
Massacres in the Debre Elias Monastery For the last few weeks, social media claims that are related to an armed clash in the Debre Elias woreda in the East Gojam zone of the Amhara region had been circulating. The claims that the government bombarded a monastery in the woreda and killed civilians were accompanied by…
June week one summary
Government forces destroyed a church in Amhara region A Twitter account with more than 130 thousand followers shared a post with an image on May 31, captioned, “The fascist group [rule] of Abiy Ahmed has crossed the red line”, indicating that government forces destroyed a church recently. The attached image depicts a damaged chapel building….
May week three summary
Houses demolished for the construction of the new Ethiopian Palace On May 19, 2023, a claim appeared on Twitter sharing two images that they show houses recently demolished for the construction of the new Ethiopian palace in Addis Ababa. The Ethiopian government is building a new palace in the Yeka district of Addis Ababa for…
May week two information disorder summary
The Ethiopian government released an AI-fabricated audio HaqCheck was encountered with viral social media posts that claim that the phone call conversation between Mihret Wedajo and a Fano member released by the Ethiopian government to prove that Fano militias assassinated Girma Yeshitla was examined and debunked by an American organization called ‘Digi Forensic Experts’ as…
Is the alleged Mihret Wodajo phone call recording audio released by the government AI-generated and Fake?
Social media platforms particularly Facebook recently surfaced with a claim that the phone call conversation between Mihret Wedajo and a Fano member released by the Ethiopian government to prove that Girma Yeshitla was assassinated by Fano militias was examined and debunked by an American organization called ‘Digi Forensic Experts’ as an AI constructed audio. Background…
May week one summary
A person attacked by Wahabis in Ethiopia HaqCheck came across a Facebook post sharing a picture with a claim that a person shown in the image was attacked by Wahabis in Ethiopia. It also claimed that Wahabis attacked and killed Sufis and Muslims who followed other Islamic sects. Wahhabi is an adherent of the Islamic…
April week one summary
Misleading debt-to-GDP ratio comparison by Mamo Mihretu HaqCheck came across a misleading claim by Mamo Mihretu, the Governor of the National Bank of Ethiopia. He claimed that Ethiopia’s external debt stock is very small in comparison to other countries’ external debt stocks such as Kenya, Sudan, and South Africa. Mamo claimed that while Ethiopia’s external…
National Bank Governor Mamo Mihretu’s Misleading Debt-to-GDP Ratio Comparison
Mamo Mihretu, the Governor of the Ethiopian National Bank, in an interview with Fana Broadcasting Corporation Television aired on April 1, 2023, claimed that Ethiopia’s external debt stock is very small in comparison to other countries’ external debt stocks such as Kenya, Sudan, and South Africa. He said “Ethiopia’s external debt is 28 billion USD….
The Ethiopian economy and interest rate hikes by Western central banks: Explainer
PM Abiy Ahmed (PhD) told the parliament on March 28, 2023, that the rising interest rate in the US has had devastating effects on the Ethiopian economy. Ethiopia has a lot of debt owed to China and international multilateral lenders. Reports indicate that the country has 56 billion dollars in total debt to be paid….
March week four summary
Christian Tadele received 74 million Birr via his CBE account On March 22, 2015, a Facebook page with more than 136,000 followers posted a screenshot image claiming that Christian Tadele, the public relations head of the National Movement of Amhara (NAMA) and a member of the Ethiopian House of People’s Representatives, received 74 million birr…
March week one summary
Eritrean troops destroying forests in Tigray HaqCheck came across a Facebook post sharing two images with a claim that Eritrean troops were destroying forests in Adiyabo, a locality in the northwestern zone of Tigray bordered by Eritrea. The Eritrea Defence Forces, Amhara regional militia, and other armed forces were involved in the war alongside the…
February 2023: Monthly disinformation analysis
The trend of disinformation across the Ethiopian media landscape Incidents prompt disinformation Controversial and false information circulation across the Ethiopian social media landscape follows the events that occurred in the country. Events prompt and provoke false information dissemination. Most of the false claims that appeared and were debunked by HaqCheck were related to events. The…