On 6 January 2020 a facebook post by the name Tigray Defence Force (a page with 16,780 followers) shared an image that shows numerous soldiers and tanks with the claim that Sudanese army captured Ethiopian troops who had been carrying out military offences against the Sudanese soldiers. The text which is written in Tigrinya and English reads “The Sudanese army captured the invading force of the Ethiopian Defence Force that crossed the Sudanese boundary and opened attacks in two fronts”. However, HaqCheck has interogetted the claim and confirmed that the image below doesn’t show Ethiopian soldiers captured by the Sudanese army along the Ethio-Sudan borders during the current armed clashes at the time the post was shared. Therefore, HaqCheck has rendered the post as FALSE due to the usage of an inaccurate image to support the claim.
Granted, there have been armed clashes around the Ethio-Sudanese border since recently. The Sudan Armed Forces stated that they reclaimed territory in the Salam Bir and Mahaj areas in El Gedaref from the Ethiopian army and armed militias. On 31 December 2020 Omar Qamareddine, Sudanese foreign minister declared restoration and full control over all territories along the Ethio-Sudanese border that had been taken over by Ethiopian farmers. The countries have been in talks and negotiations to settle the issue and demarcate the boundary in spite of it being in vain.
It is in this context that the image was shared claiming the Sudanese army captured Ethiopian troops who had been undergoing military offences against Sudanese soldiers. However, a reverse image search of the picture used in the facebook post doesn’t show Ethiopian forces captured by the Sudanese army during the current armed conflict along the border. The image was first posted on Hawar News Agency on 18 December 2020 with a text that claims Sudanese army has controlled all disputed territories including the Abu Toyor mountain along the Ethio-Sudan border areas. But the original article doesn’t have any description about the image nor tell who the people in the image are. The original post related to the image can be with the following link.
It is true that there have been armed conflicts along the border areas between Ethiopian and Sudanese forces. However, HaqCheck has interogetted the claim and confirmed that the image below doesn’t show Ethiopian troops who were captured by the Sudanese army during the current armed conflict along the border, therefore, rendering the post as FALSE due to the usage of an inaccurate image to support the claim.
Fact Checked by: Hagos Gebreamlak
Edited by: Bruck Negash Teame
This article is part of HaqCheck, Addis Zeybe’s multilingual fact checking initiative, which is run by its R&D Department.
