On 12 February 2021 a Facebook user named Wondye Yalew made a Facebook post in a public Facebook group, named ሰበር- ዜና -as in Breaking News-, with more than 157,000 members claiming that Getachew Reda and Debretsion G/michael are found dead also adding a telegram channel link to find the whole video. However, HaqCheck interrogated the post and confirmed that the picture doesn’t show a dead body of Debretsion G/michael and Getachew Reda and rated it FALSE due to the usage of an inaccurate image.
Since 4 November 2020, there has been armed fighting between the TPLF-led regional forces and Federal government-led forces in Tigray. The federal government has controlled the regional capital city, Mekelle on 28 November 2020. It has also recently announced that it was rapidly capturing senior civil and military officers of the TPLF. Some of the senior civil and military leaders of the TPLF-led force have also been arrested. Some of them include influential members of the TPLF, Sebhat Nega, former President Abay Woldu, Deputy President of the Tigray Regional State Abrham Tekeste (PHD), and others. On 14 January 2021 ENDF gave a statement saying three TPLF officials, Abay Tsehaye- TPLF political leader, Seyoum Mesfin- former foreign minister, and Asmelash Woldeselassie- a member of the executive committee of the TPLF, and other former military members were killed.
However a reverse image search of the picture shows that the image was first published on 3 March, 2020 by Army times – a source for news and information concerning the military community- on an article written about training casualty, with a caption saying “A flight paramedic receives urgent surgical patients during a training exercise on Jan. 27, 2020.” The picture was taken by Sgt. 1st Class Garrick W. Morgenweck – a U.S. army photographer.
There is also a telegram link attached with a saying “the full video can be found in the link”, But the so called video or any file related to the claim can not be found in the telegram channel.
Despite there are TPLF leaders that had been captured and killed, there is still no information about the whereabouts and the conditions of Getachew Reda and Debretsion G/michael, And HaqCheck confirmed that the pictures don’t show a dead body of Getachew Reda and Debretsion G/michael therefore rendering the post FALSE due to inaccurate usage of the picture to support the claim.
Fact Checked by: Rehobot Ayalew
Edited by: Bruck Negash Teame
The following article is part of HaqCheck, Addis Zeybe’s multilingual fact checking running in five languages (Affan Oromo, Amharic, Somali, Tigrinya and English)
