Do these images show 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 Twitter account has over nine thousand followers. The post was viewed more than eighteen thousand times and it was shared by 238 accounts across the platform.

However, HaqCheck inquired about the claim and confirmed that one of the two pictures was old and doesn’t support the claim. Thus, the claim was rated Partly False.

The Ethiopian government has embarked on the building of a new palace in the Yeka district of Addis Ababa. The palace project and other related facilities being built are dubbed by the government as ‘Chaka Project’.

The palace was first reported to cost 49 billion Birr, but later on, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) told the Parliament that his government was constructing the Chaka Project for hundreds of billions of Birr.

The Project to be sprawled on 503 hectares of land will comprise halls, artificial lakes, housing units, and road infrastructures.

It is supposed that thousands of people would be evacuated from the area where the project lays on. As part of it, a 20-kilometer long asphalt road was being built for 15 billion Birr.

Recent social media reports claim that people have been told to evacuate the area where the Chaka Project is being built within a few days.

On the other hand, the Addis Ababa city administration and the Oromia regional government have been engaged in house demolitions in Addis Ababa and surrounding areas in Oromia. The government says that the houses being demolished were illegal.

The administration of the newly established city of Sheger have recently demolished many illegal houses in the outskirts of Addis Ababa. The city administration claimed that it was knocking down illegally constructed houses.

Against this backdrop, a claim emerged on Twitter sharing two images that they show recently demolished houses for the construction of the new Ethiopian Palace.

However, HaqCheck investigated the claim and found out that one of the two pictures was old and has no connection with the construction of the new palace.

The first image used to support the claim was first published on Facebook on Feb 19, 2019 with a description that houses were being razed in the Legetafo Legedadi city administration, part of the then Finfinne Special Zone of the Oromia regional state.

The second picture in the Twitter post was first published by Addis Standard, a local media outlet, on Jan 6, 2023, along with a news article. The news outlet stated that the picture shows a recently demolished house and it was one of many images it received. But, Addis Standard didn’t give a further description of where was the house demolished. Therefore, HaqCheck rated the claim Partly False because one of the pictures used was old.