Does the video demonstrate a recent massacre that took place in Western Wollega?

A Facebook page with more than 196 thousand followers shared a 13-minute and 5-second video on Jun 21, 2022, captioned “this video shows the massacre in west Wollega.” by the time this article is published the video had more than 83 thousand views and the post was shared more than thousand times.

However, HaqCheck has inspected the video and rendered it False.

On Jun 14, 2022, there was a report of gunfire exchange between joint forces of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLA) and Gambella Liberation Front (GLA). According to news reports, the two rebel forces conducted a sudden siege in the town and opened an attack on government forces. The government finally announced it controlled the situation. 

At the same day it is also reported that there was a skirmish in Dembi Dolo and Gimbi cities in western Wollega among OLA and government forces, and some parts of the cities are controlled by OLA. Odda Tarbi the International spokesperson of the OLA, said on his official Twitter account that OLA forces are engaging the government’s military in Dambidollo and Gimbi and Political prisoners that were being held in Dambidollo have been freed.

Later on, on Jun 18, different posts appeared claiming that the Oromo Libration Army (OLA) massacred Ethnic Amhara’s who live in west wollega Gimbi woreda Tole kebele.

But spoke person of the OLA Odda tarbii has denied the accusation of the killing by the federal government.

OLA has shared a statement on its communique website that PM Abiy’s regime organized a militia group called “Gachana Sirna” meaning “the guardians of the regime” that wear artificial wigs to impersonate members of the OLA and commit atrocity crimes in Oromia.

HaqCheck has inspected the video and found out that the video was first shared on  Jul 23, 2021, on a Facebook Account. The video iscaptioned, “WBO [OLA] is freeing prisoners, Thousands of WBO commandos are marching to 4killo.”. The post had more than 400 views.

HaqCheck Found the same footage of people and the armed militias in the videos.

Even though there are several claims that a massacre is conducted in West Wollega, the video used by the Facebook page to support the claim is found out to be old.

Therefore HaqCheck counterchecked the post and rendered it False.