On August 7, 2023, a Facebook account shared an image claiming to depict an Ethiopian military helicopter brought down by Fano militia groups during the ongoing armed conflict in the Amhara region state.
The post also alleged that the helicopter had attacked and crashed in the Amhara region. This Facebook post gained traction on the platform, with 21 shares by the time this article was published.
Haqcheck inspected the image and confirmed that the picture doesn’t support the claim. As a result, the claim was rated False.
On April 6, 2023, the Ethiopian federal government announced that it had decided to disarm regional special police forces.
After the decision of the government, instability stormed the Amhara regional state opposing to dissolution of regional special police forces. Then Armed confrontations and clashes have taken place in the Amhara region.
The Fano militants took control of many areas including major cities in the region. The government soon after declared a state of emergency in the region to reverse the situation.
Despite the federal government reclaiming major areas of the Amhara region, fighting and armed confrontations between Ethiopian armed forces and Fano militia groups persisted.
In this context, a Facebook post came sharing an image with a claim that Fano militants downed an Ethiopian military helicopter in a recent confrontation.
HaqCheck investigated the claim and found that the image doesn’t support the claim. The original image had been previously published on a website on March 3, 2022, with a caption describing the crash of a Romanian helicopter searching for a fighter jet in the Black Sea.
Therefore, HaqCheck rendered the Facebook post False due to its usage of an inaccurate image.
