On 5 January 2020 a facebook post by the name Selam Nkulu (an account with 3,542 friends) was shared with an image that shows a troop in a small fortification with food and sleeping materials with the claim that Sudanese soldiers have come with their beds to the forts during the ongoing armed conflict between Ethiopia and Sudan along the borders. The text which is written in Amharic reads “the Sudaneses have come with their beds to the forts. If the EPLF [Eritrea] and men of scarf [Amhara regional forces] see this, they could begin the battle today. Ohhh you Sudaneses have a seat and enjoy the food”. However, HaqCheck has interogetted the claim and confirmed that the image below doesn’t show Sudanese soldiers who have come with their beds to the fortress along the Ethio-Sudan borders during the current armed clashes. Therefore, HaqCheck has rendered the post as SATIRE 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. 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. Reports have been released that Sudan has been deploying its troops to the border areas amid the clashes around the border. Ambassador Dina Mufti, spokesperson of the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a A press briefing on 29 December 2020 stated that starting from 9 November 2020 there were organized attacks by the Sudanese Military Forces using heavy machine guns and armoured convoy adding agricultural products of Ethiopian farmers had been looted, camps had been vandalized, farmers had been hampered from harvesting their own farms and a number of civilians have been murdered and wounded. The two sides issued a joint communiqué agreeing to submit reports to the leadership of the two countries and decided to start the border demarcation process as soon as possible.
It is in this context that the image was shared claiming the soldiers in the image are Sudanese troops who have come with their beds to the battleground along the Ethio- Sudanese border areas. However, a reverse image search of the picture used in the facebook post shows that the image is not of the recent armed conflict between Ethiopian and Sudanese forces. The image was first posted on facebook on 30 May 2020 with a text that claims armed clashes erupted between Ethiopian and Sudanese forces along the bordering territories. 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 that shows troops in a small fortification with sleeping facilities and food doesn’t relate to the recent armed clash between Sudan and Ethiopia, therefore, rendering the post as SATIRE 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.
