On 12 January 2020 a facebook post by the name ካብ ሕልሚ ዝነቕሐ ሰብ (a facebook page with 6,551 followers) shared the image below with the claim that many Eritrean soldiers had been killed in Tigray during the ongoing armed conflict sharing an inaccurate image to support the claim. The post adds that many Eritrean troops have been crossing the Ethio-Eritrean boundary to support the Ethiopian army. However, HaqCheck has interrogated the post and confirmed that the image doesn’t show Eritrean soldiers involved and killed during the ongoing armed conflict in Tigray and rated it as FALSE.
Since 4 November 2020 there has been armed fighting between TPLF-led regional forces and Federal government-led forces in Tigray. There have also been claims that the Eritrean army has been involved in the ongoing military operation in Tigray supporting the Ethiopian federal government.
In this context the facebook post emerged claiming that several Eritrean soldiers who were involved in the armed conflict in Tigray have been killed. However, a google reverse image search of the picture shows that the image doesn’t support the claim. The image was first published on InfoMigrants, a web based news outlet in 09/08/2019 in an article that Eritrea’s military conscription had forced many to migrate. The original post related to the image can be accessed with the following link.
Granted, there have been allegations and unproven claims of Eritrean army involvement in the war supporting the Ethiopian army. However, HaqCheck has interrogated the post and confirmed that the image doesn’t show Eritrean troops involved and killed during the ongoing armed conflict in Tigray, therefore rating the post as FALSE due to inaccurate usage of the image.
Fact Checked by: Hagos Gebreamlak
Edited by: Bruck Negash Teame
The following article is part of HaqCheck, Addis Zeybe’s multilingual fact checking initiative, which is run by its R&D Department.
