In the third paragraph, describing the state of Emergency in Ethiopia, the article reads a phrase,“…requires citizens to carry ID cards that can indicate ethnic origin.”
However, HaqCheck looked into the claim and rated it as MISLEADING.
After over a year since the conflict in the northern part of the country broke out, the Ethiopian government declared a state of emergency (SoE) which will be valid for a six months period throughout the country. The SoE is declared as the war is intensifying and spreading to neighboring Afar and Amhara regions. As stated in the obligation and prohibited actions of the SoE “Moving around cities without holding an identity card, driving license, employee identity card, passport, or any other similar identity card is prohibited…”
However, Residents’ ID cards issued and used currently do not indicate either the ethnic origin or birthplace of a person, as asserted by Reuters’ report.
Addis Ababa city administration introduced a new kind of identity card in Oct 2018. The new identity card only incorporates information of ID number, Full name, Date of birth, Blood type, Date of Issue & Expiry date of the ID, Resident Address, Phone number, House number, Emergency contact name, and phone number. Other information like Ethnic origin, Place of birth, Mother’s name and Occupation are only filled out in the ID issuance registration form and are secured in a barcode.
Due to the above reasons, HaqCheck rated the article as MISLEADING.
A Facebook page with more than 504,000 followers shared a post claiming that “The Hero Tigray Army downed a military helicopter and burned it this morning in Mile front…”. An image attached to the post, to support the claim, shows a burning helicopter. Until this article was published, the post had been shared more than 175 times and received more than 1.5 thousand reactions.
However, the HaqCheck could confirm that the image doesn’t show a Helicopter downed due to the recent war and rated it FALSE.
Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) forces and the Federal Government of Ethiopia have been in an active war in northern Ethiopia Since November 2020. Last November, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent the Defence Force to Tigray to oust (TPLF) from power. In June, TPLF took control of Mekelle, the regional capital.
The war has widened its scope recently. It is being reported that TPLF is continuing its expansion towards the neighboring Amhara and the Afar Regional States. Several media outlets are reporting that the Tigrean forces are advancing to take over the capital, defeating the federal and allied forces.
In the saga of controlling the capital and crippling the government by TPLF, taking over key towns and strategic areas is eyed by the force as basic. In this context lies the town of Mille, a district in Afar Regional State, strategically important to control the main road connecting the country to Djibouti. However, HaqCheck has undertaken a reverse image search of the pictures to learn that the Image doesn’t actually prove the claim. The image was taken on September 9, 2016, and published for the first time on a website with the caption “A Mil Mi-35 attack helicopter during the Caucasus 2016 strategic drills at Opuk range of Russia’s Southern Military District”.
The Original image
Therefore, HaqCheck confirmed that the image does not show a helicopter taken down at Mille, by the Tigrayan forces; it is rather an image taken four years before the war began.
Given the discussed reasons, HaqCheck rendered the claim as FALSE.
A verified Facebook page called ‘Tigray People’s Liberation Front/TPLF/’ with more than 600,000 followers shared a post claiming that “The Hero Tigray Army downed a military helicopter and burned it this morning in Mile front…”. An image attached to the post, to support the claim, shows a burning helicopter. Until this article was published, the post had been shared more than 400 times and received more than 2 thousand reactions in an hour.
However, the HaqCheck could confirm that the image doesn’t show a Helicopter downed due to the recent war and rated it FALSE.
Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) forces and the Federal Government of Ethiopia have been in an active war in northern Ethiopia Since November 2020. Last November, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent the Defence Force to Tigray to oust (TPLF) from power. In June, TPLF took control of Mekelle, the regional capital.
The war has widened its scope recently. It is being reported that TPLF is continuing its expansion towards the neighboring Amhara and the Afar Regional States. Several media outlets are reporting that the Tigrean forces are advancing to take over the capital, defeating the federal and allied forces.
In the saga of controlling the capital and crippling the government by TPLF, taking over key towns and strategic areas is eyed by the force as basic. In this context lies the town of Mille, a district in Afar Regional State, strategically important to control the main road connecting the country to Djibouti. However, HaqCheck has undertaken a reverse image search of the pictures to learn that the Image doesn’t actually prove the claim. The image was posted for the first time by The Time on October 23, 2016, in an article entitled “I was blown up and trapped by Isis guns”.
Therefore, HaqCheck confirmed that the image does not show a helicopter taken down at Mille, by the Tigrayan forces; it is rather an image taken four years before the war began.
Given the discussed reasons, HaqCheck rendered the claim as FALSE.
A Facebook page named Egypt Today Magazine with more than 139,000 followers posted a photo on Nov 8, 2021, entitled “#BREAKING: Leader of Oromo People Liberation Front says forces are 40 kilometers away from the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.” The Image shows trekking arrayed soldiers, supposedly OLF forces according to the caption of the post.
The post was viral and received more than 1.7 thousand reactions and was shared more than 815 times.
However, HaqCheck looked into the Post in order to ratify the claim. In the first place, we can’t find any armed group in the name of ‘Oromo People Liberation Front. We can find an armed group, Oromo Liberation Army (OLA). The OLA was for many years the armed wing of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), from which it split from OLF in April 2018, refusing the 2018 peace agreement that the OLF made with the federal Ethiopian government. The group claims it had taken several towns in the western, central, and southern Oromia regions.
We can also confirm that the picture posted does not show the Oromo Liberation Front force’s soldiers, and rated it as FALSE due to its inexact use of pictures.
The Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) forces and the Federal Government of Ethiopia have been in an active war in northern Ethiopia Since November 2020. Last November, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent the defense force to Tigray to oust Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) from power. In June TPLF took control of Mekelle, the regional capital.
Thousands of civilians are killed and displaced due to the war in northern Ethiopia.
The Ethiopian government designated Oromo Liberation Army (addressed as OLF Shene by the government) as a terrorist group along with the Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) on May 1, 2021. The two groups announced their alliance on August 11. After the war in Tigray spread to the neighboring Afar and Amhara regions, TPLF started its expansion to different cities and towns including Dessie and Kombolcha. On November 1 OLA said it had seized the town of Kemissie, 335 km from Addis Ababa.
The report had thus been produced during such times the conflict has escalated.
A Tineye reverse image search of the picture of the report shows that Oromo forces are not pictured in the image. The image was posted for the first time by Ethiopian Insight on August 10, 2020. The Picture was published with a News analysis entitled “Tigray-federal tit-for-tat threatens trouble”, even before the ongoing war.
Furthermore, we can simply infer the identity of the soldiers by looking at the flag of Tigray Regional State embroidered on the fatigues of the soldiers. Hence, in the image are depicted soldiers of Tigray Regional State Special Police Force and the picture is taken before the war erupted.
HaqCheck assessed the post/ report and confirmed that the images do not show the Oromo forces, rendering it as FALSE.
The trend of disinformation often intensifies when the conflict between the belligerents escalates. Recently, the armed conflict has been spilling over to adjacent areas of the South Wollo and other territories of the Amhara Regional State. Information disorder has aggravated during the week along with the escalation of the conflict.
Here are some of the social media claims that were part of the information disorder last week.
Cannonade in Dessie
There was a claim on social media that the Ethiopian government was using city residents as human shields by firing artillery towards enemy forces from cannons planted at the center of the city. A video was published on October 28, 2021. The Video’s Amharic description reads, “Abiy Ahmed and Daniel Kibret cannonading in Wollo and Dessie using city residents as a shield with an intention of causing civilian massacre…”.
However, it is learned that the video does not prove the claim. It is neither from Ethiopia nor shows a recent incident in the country. The footage found shows a “Rehearsal for the victory parade 2016” in Novosibirsk, a city in Siberia, southern Russia, on May 9, 2016, dated even before the war began. The post was fact-checked and is rated as False by HaqCheck.
Weapons captured by OLA
Another viral post that was fact-checked by HaqCheck was a claim that Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), whom the government addresses as Shane, captured armaments originally belonging to the Ethiopian army.
The claim was confirmed false by HaqCheck’s interrogation of the image. The image was made up of two different pictures. The original image shows an Ural truck and a cannon. The image can be found in different Facebook posts, from August 6, 2021. Most of the images are posted by TPLF affiliated pages, along with other photos claiming to show captured weapons around Woldiya. However, the image in the post is ‘photoshopped’ from the original picture, by adding a photo of a group of OLA soldiers over the original picture.
The original image.
OLA advancing to Addis Ababa
A Facebook post emerged last week amid the escalation of the conflict and controversial reports by international media outlets. The post explains that following Kumsa Diriba’s, a.k.a Jaal Marro, commander-in-chief of OLA, order to take control of Addis Ababa, the Oromo Liberation Army is advancing to besiege the city.
Original image.
Photoshopped image.
The post used a false image to support the claim. HaqCheck has confirmed that it is photoshopped, comprising two different pictures. The first image was posted on July 13, 2021, by a non-profit journalistic website platform genevasolutions.news with the title “UN rights body passes resolution on Ethiopia’s Tigray region.”
Kemissie residents celebrating the entrance of OLA troops to the town
Last week claims were made that TPLF and OLA troops entered the town of Kemise, capital of the Oromo Special Zone of Amhara regional state. Amid the situation, a Facebook page with more than 38,000 followers posted a 3:16 minute video on Oct 31, claiming to show the people of Kemisse celebrating the entrance of OLA that day. The post claimed the town was crowded with people who gathered to welcome the troops and celebrate their entrance.
However, the post was confirmed to be false by HaqCheck. The original video was posted on Facebook on October 23, 2018. We also analyzed the video clip and saw a possibility of the video to be taken back in 2018 when the government embraced reform and allowed armed resistance forces, such as the Oromo Liberation Front to enter the country.
Captured TPLF spies
A post appeared last week claiming that the two men in the images were arrested while spying and infiltrating by pretending to be disabled persons. The text in the post reads “They are members of the invading force [TPLF forces] who are arrested while spying and infiltrating by pretending to be disabled”.
The post was investigated by HaqCheck and confirmed to be false. The images were first shared on Facebook, by the official page of the Hadiya zone Government Communication Affairs Department, three hours prior to the claim. The image was shared on Nov 3 as news reporting an arrest of two people in the Hadiya zone, who were deceiving the public by pretending to be disabled.
Controversial reports by international news outlets
Last week many international news outlets such as CNN had published controversial and false reports regarding the ongoing armed conflict in Ethiopia. For instance, CNN published content with the headline “Ethiopian rebels edge closer to Addis Ababa, as fears grow over all-out war”. But another content published on the CNN website explains that one of the rebel groups claimed to be 15 miles from the capital, but eyewitnesses reported no sign of the fighters.
TPLF and OLA soldiers embracing one another
On November 5, 2021, a Facebook post claims the embracing armed men in the image below are soldiers of the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) and Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) that rebranded itself as Tigray Defense Forces (TDF).
However, HaqCheck looked into the image and confirmed that the picture in the post does not show OLA and TPLF soldiers hugging one another.
The picture was taken from a previous Facebook post in 2019. The image was first published on Facebook on Feb 23, 2019, without any description. The original post of the image can be accessed here.
Therefore, HaqCheck rated the post as False due to the use of inaccurate images to prove the claim.
Recommendations
HaqCheck urges international news outlets to be responsible during reporting. They should be considerate of the sensitive situation in the country and the potential adverse impact such controversial reports would bring about.
We recommend social media users be conscious of the reports. This includes disinformation trends and media consumers should identify the right pages and sources to understand the intention and credibility of the message they are reading or sharing.
HaqCheck is a local multilingual fact-checking project based in Ethiopia, formed inside Addis Zeybe’s newsroom, now Inform Africa’s Counter Disinformation Project – a board-led Civil Society Organization (CSO) – dedicated to verifying media contents from social to the mainstream. HaqCheck works in collaboration with media outlets to monitor media contents in English and four local languages (Amharic, Afaan Oromo, Tigrigna, and Somali).
This report is produced with the support of UNESCO under the #CoronavirusFacts: Addressing the ‘Disinfodemic’ on COVID-19 in conflict-prone Environments that the UNESCO Addis Ababa Office is implementing in Ethiopia with financial support from the European Union (EU). The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO or the EU concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city, or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The ideas and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of UNESCO or The European Union and do not commit these organizations in any way.
A Website called Egypt Today based in Giza Governorate, Egypt, Published a news report entitled, “Tigray activist claims locals welcome TPLF, labels Abiy Ahmed’s policies “childish” alongside an image that’s supposed to delineate the story. The Image shows armed soldiers on a battlefield, considered to be Tigrean forces according to the narrative of the story.
Egypt Today has 46.7% site traffic in Egypt, 8.0% in India, and 7.2% in the United States according to Alexa. Alexa ranked it 54,939th in global internet engagement in a 90-day trend.
However, the image used to support the narrative is rated as False due to its inexact use of pictures.
The Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) forces and the Federal Government of Ethiopia have been in an inactive war in northern Ethiopia Since November 2020. Last November, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent the Defence force to Tigray to oust Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) from power. In June TPLF took control of Mekelle, the regional capital.
The war in northern Ethiopia has killed thousands of civilians, plunged hundreds of thousands into famine, and forced more than a million people to flee their homes.
The report had thus been produced during such times the conflict has escalated.
A Tineye reverse image search of the picture of the report shows that the images are not related to the current situation in the northern part of Ethiopia. The image is taken from a video shared by the BBC on October 11, 2018. The video entitled “US Niger ambush: How raft of failures ended in death”, shows the death of four US special forces soldiers in a small corner of Niger known as Tongo Tongo.
HaqCheck assessed the report and confirmed that the images do not show the current war situation, rendering it as FALSE.
Misinformation and disinformation can come in the form of news, images, graphics, videos, or social media posts that are created to deliberately misinform or deceive its audience. Throughout the month of October, a fresh news batch of disputed content emerged.
Controversies
During the first week of October a number of different controversies circulated on social media. This included CNN accusing Ethiopian Airlines of transporting weapons to and from Eritrea amid the ongoing conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region. The CNN reporters backed up their report using cargo documents and manifest, plus eyewitness accounts and alleged photographic evidence.
However, Ethiopian Airlines has denied transporting weapons to the conflict in Tigray. A Facebook page with more than 10,000 followers shared a screenshot of a post saying, “The CEO of the Ethiopian Airline Dr. Tewolde acknowledges that the Ethiopian government has been and will continue providing the demands of the federal government.”
Despite this claim, Ethiopian Airlines has announced that the company’s page was temporarily compromised and they found out that a fake statement was posted as it was from the Ethiopian Group CEO.” And the CEO of Ethiopian Airlines said he never conveyed any message and has never done so on any of the airline’s social media accounts.
The other controversy spotted out by HaqCheck was about Facebook. There were multiple reports about the social media giant’s role in disseminating hateful speech, misinformation, and political unrest.
A whistleblower called Frances Haugen, a former employee of Facebook accused the company of intentionally amplifying hateful and disputed content in countries like Ethiopia. She also alleged that Facebook has a role in fanning ethnic violence in Ethiopia by amplifying hateful and divisive content.
The speech by the prime minister
On October 4, 2021, Ethiopia held the formation of the new Government. After the inauguration ceremony, the minister gave a speech in the parliament as he was appointing his new cabinet. The controversial statement uttered by the prime minister was that “developed countries don’t have an education ministerial post.” This claim began trending on social media outlets. Developed countries do have educational ministerial departments. For instance, the United States of America has a cabinet-level ministerial post called the “US Department of Education”. And the United Kingdom has a department called the “Department for Education” which is responsible for children’s services and education, including early years, schools, higher and further educational policies.
The re-appointment of WHO head Dr. Tewodros Adhanom
A Facebook page with more than 180,000 followers shared a post claiming that “Tedros Adhanom has been re-elected for the second time as Director-General of the world health organization (WHO).” Dr. Tewodros Adhanom has been serving as a Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia from 2012-2016. He was also a Chair of the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. After he served in different international organizations in 2017, he was elected as the Director-General of the World Health Organization. But there has been no official statement of Dr. Tewodros Adhanom being re-appointed on Sep 22, at the time the post was published.
Using false images to support claims
In October, different social media posts have used false images to support claims. A Facebook page used an image to support a claim that “the Federal Government started a new offensive with airstrikes, drones, and infantry”.
The image attached to the post shows a burning vehicle. The Facebook post had earned more than 55 shares on the platform by the time our fact-checking article was published. Nevertheless, HaqCheck has inspected the image and rendered it as false. The image was taken during a protest, that followed after a stampede at the Irreecha celebration in October 2016, when trucks and machinery belonging to the Dangote’s group were attacked by Oromo protesters.
USA’s military equipment provision to Ethiopia
A Facebook post claimed that the US Government recently provided 2.9 million dollars worth of military equipment to the Ethiopian National Defence Force. The post attached two different images to support the claim that “the equipment is donated to Ethiopia to fight the Al-Shabaab [and]other terrorist groups in Somalia”. But the post was rendered as False by HaqCheck due to its wrong assertion. The image shows the American Government delivering military equipment support about a year ago.
The Ethiopian military is being armed with new drones
A Facebook post shared a couple of images claiming that the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) is being armed with a new type of drone that is capable of firing mortars off the radar. The image was first published in a news article by Xinhua on November 4, 2018. However, the image was taken when members of the Defense Force were on training in China about drone operations.
VTOL (Vertical Take-off and Landing) drones, pictured in the post’s images, are not used for military purposes. The VTOL drones are used in mining construction, oil and gas industries, surveying, mapping, security, and defense industries.
Deceptive YouTube thumbnail
A video published on a YouTube channel, website, and Facebook page with more than 484,277 followers claimed to show Teddy Afro entertaining the army with a surprise appearance. However, the video in the Facebook post is found out that it doesn’t actually show Teddy Afro entertaining cadets at Tolay Military Training Center, and the post was rendered False.
Controversial airstrike reports
Airstrikes have been conducted by the Ethiopian government in Tigray recently. The airstrikes were undertaken amid the escalation of the 12-month conflict between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Federal Government.
News reports of the airstrikes have been all over the media. Major global news outlets have reported the strikes. The warring sides rushed into giving their own version of the report of the aerial attacks.
TPLF and its affiliated regional state media in their reports accused the federal government of deliberately targeting civilians and private properties. They claimed that the attacks were aimed at massacring civilians and destroying public and private properties.
On the other hand, the federal government alleged that the aerial strikes had targeted TPLF’s military facilities and premises. They stated that the attacks were conducted on TPLF armament maintenance buildings and military training centers. The competing reports of the same incident showed the efforts to manipulate and take advantage of the situation by the belligerents.
Irrelevant images
Many renowned international media have recently developed a tendency of using images that are irrelevant to a particular news story. Besides, they don’t put sufficient description of the image they use alongside story articles. Such unprofessional reportings are known to potentially fuel information disorder and controversy. Given the low media literacy in Ethiopia, such mistakes would have a considerable adverse impact.
Recently, Reuters, France24, and Egypt Independent used out-of-context images including some without description while reporting about the recent airstrikes by the Federal Government in Tigray. Three of them used different images that depict damaged military tanks. They might have used such images to show the ongoing active war, but it contributes to information disorder or even misinformation.
Another reporting by Daily News Egypt on Facebook also used an image from November 16, 2020, without any description. The image was also previously factchecked by HaqCheck as a subject of another claim.
Even though there is a description and caption embedded under the images, using images unrelated to an issue might still mislead and misinform the public.
An article published on Aljazeera is titled “Air raids target capital of Ethiopia’s Tigray; 3 civilians dead”. However, the image in the story shows a wounded woman being hospitalized several months ago. Even though the caption of the image clarifies when it was taken, it still potentially misleads the audience and creates controversy about whether civilians were attacked by the airstrike.
Misquotation of the Prime Minister’s speech
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was misquoted by the UK-based news outlet, The DailyTelegraph, saying that he threatened to stop foreign food aid from entering the country.
The newspaper stated that Abiy indicated in his speech that he may stop international food aid from entering into Tigray to diminish diplomatic pressure on the country.
In a statement issued on October 20, 2021, the Ethiopian government the PM is quoted saying,, “if we make sure that this thing called wheat [food aid] does not enter Ethiopia, 70 percent of Ethiopia’s problems will be solved” implying his desire to see the country food self-sufficient.
Ethiopia Current Issues Fact Check-governmental public relation or fact-checking initiative?
While the initiative of fact-checking by the government regarding ongoing issues is appreciated and is important at this time, the platform’s name – fact check and its actions are often contrasting.
Even though updating the public with timely information plays a significant role in countering disinformation, the role of fact checking is different from news reporting. Fact-checking requires monitoring of controversies, claims, and false information and giving factual information based on solid evidence.
Instead of using the available information and evidence as an advantage to factcheck the false information that has engulfed social media and the international media, the platform is observed playing a governmental role in public relations and communication.
This undertaking is far from the required standard of fact checking and may create confusion and misunderstanding of the public’s perspective of what fact checking is.
Wrong Images for Borana Drought
According to reports, the Borana zone of the Oromia regional state has been affected by drought. Recently it has emerged that the Borana zone, a southern zone in the Oromia Regional State, has been hit by drought. Addis Standard, a local news outlet, reported that thousands of people have been impacted by malnutrition and 7,540 cattle have died due to the drought.
Campaigns that call for attention to the drought in Borana were observed on social media. Images that don’t actually show the reality in the zone however were used mainly on Facebook.
Using irrelevant or false images alongside report stories would misinform users and discredit the campaigns too.
Kombolcha Industrial Park used as a weapon depot
A hashtag disinformation campaign has been ongoing regarding the belligerent’s use of civilian infrastructural facilities for military purposes. Pro-TPLF users had claimed that the Ethiopian army was using the Kombolcha Industrial Park as a military depot for storing weapons.
The tweets on the issue were disseminated with a hashtag campaign. The claim came after allegations that the TPLF is using the premises of Mesfin Industrial Engineering, a large industrial complex in Mekelle, for military purposes. According to Reuters, the industrial complex was one of the targets during the recent airstrikes. The tweets had been circulating over many accounts.
Ceres Juice controversy
The Ethiopian Food and Drug Authority (EFDA) announced that it found a toxin in a juice. The authority warned that the public should avoid using the juice. The headline of the announcement originally written in Amharic reads, “The Authority advises the public not to use Cerece apple juice as it contains a 100% harmful toxin caused by mold.“
The reporting was complained on to be exaggerated and created controversies. The company and the authority explained that a mistake was made during translation from Amharic into English. The matter had been the report of the EFDA and other media outlets saying, “100% harmful toxic elements found…” was a wrong way of addressing the issue. As the authority explained to EBS news the mistake happened during translation and what the statement should have said is “harmful toxic element found in Ceres 100% apple juice…”
Norway offering visa lottery
Disinformation in the form of Telegram messages was also circulating last month. Part of such trends was a Telegram message announcing that Norway is offering a visa lottery to foreigners. The link embedded in the message refers users to an application form requesting personal information. HaqCheck has confirmed that Norway doesn’t offer a visa lottery opportunity, according to information we received from the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Addis Ababa.
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HaqCheck is a local multilingual fact-checking project based in Ethiopia, formed inside Addis Zeybe’s newsroom, now Inform Africa’s Counter Disinformation Project – a board-led Civil Society Organization (CSO) – dedicated to verifying media contents from social to the mainstream. HaqCheck works in collaboration with media outlets to monitor media contents in English and four local languages (Amharic, Afaan Oromo, Tigrigna, and Somali).
This report is produced with the support of UNESCO under the #CoronavirusFacts: Addressing the ‘Disinfodemic’ on COVID-19 in conflict-prone Environments that the UNESCO Addis Ababa Office is implementing in Ethiopia with financial support from the European Union (EU). The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO or the EU concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city, or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The ideas and opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of UNESCO or The European Union and do not commit these organizations in any way.
There are a number of Facebook groups having similar posts with common messages offering airtime top-up bonuses. Most of such posts begin with catch phrases like “Breaking News” “Good News” and “Urgent”. The messages of the posts are that Ethio telecom is offering a 50% bonus for those who top up airtime using a particular MMI code. The justifications for the bonus giveaway vary based on key holidays or events at specific times. Some of the justifications include the Mawlid holiday, Meskel Holiday, the election of Abiy Ahmed as a PM, and a report on intruders, issues worth celebration during the time the messages were disseminated.
The other thing that makes the posts similar is the instructions they put forward which people are requested to follow. n. Instead of using the regular MMI code steps with the pattern of (*805*phone number#), they advise people to use (*805*mobile card number*a list of numbers /shown in the screenshots of the posts/#), emphasizing, “Please note that this is the only way to top up airtime”.
Ethio Telecom has been offering bonuses and gifts to its customers on different occasions such as holidays and other celebrations at different times. Among these are direct package gifts from the organization at times when it announces annual profits, bonuses given to the receiver when one gets international airtime top-up gifts, holiday package gifts directly offered by Ethio Telecom.
However, HaqCheck investigated the trending posts and contacted Ethio Telecom about the issue. We have contacted Ethio Telecom customer services and confirmed that the method these messages are instructing people to follow to top up airtime for themselves is an MMI code procedure used for topping up airtime to others, which is deceptive. Eshete Mebratu, a supervisor at Ethio Telecom Meskel Flower branch said, “If you dial with the code sequence, (*805*mobile card number*another person’s phone number#) it will automatically top-up that number’s airtime. It is one way of transferring the card to another person. If you find someone participating in this kind of practice deceiving you to top up their airtime by making it seem like a code to reward you with a bonus, you can report to the nearest Ethio Telecom center.”
Despite the bonuses and gifts offered by Ethio Telecom on different occasions, the kind of posts that claim to be offered by Ethio Telecom requesting you to dial a particular set of MMI codes to top up your airtime balance are Scams.
A Facebook page with more than 59 thousand followers posted a collage of two images showing two men on Nov 4. The Amharic caption in the post reads “They are members of the invading force who are arrested while spying and infiltrating by pretending to be disabled…” The viral post has been shared more than 420 times in less than 24 hours since it was posted.
HaqCheck has looked into the post and rated it as False.
The Ethiopian government has declared a state of emergency (SoE) which will be valid for the next six months throughout the country, from the time it is approved by the Council of Ministers on Nov 2. Different regions including the capital Addis Ababa have been calling their residents to keep an eye on their neighborhood and to report if there are any suspicious issues. The post is thus published in this context.
Despite the claim, HaqCheck was able to find the original source of the images. The images were first shared on Facebook, by the official page of the Hadiya zone Government Communication Affairs Department, three hours prior to the claim. The image was shared as news reporting an arrest of two people in the Hadiya zone, who were deceiving the public by pretending to be disabled on Nov 3.
HaqCheck also contacted Yididya Tesfahun, the communication officer of the Hadiya Zone. He confirmed to us that the Facebook page is the official page of the zone and he was also an eyewitness of the incident.
The Facebook page that posted the false claim was created on Aug 23, 2021, by the name “Mesay Mekonnen – ESAT” who is a prominent journalist in ESAT TV. However, it was changed to “Click Dessie” on Oct 12. Impersonating prominent figures in such ways is one of the tricks used to gather followers and disseminate disinformation. In addition to that, changes in the name denote the swinging purpose the page wants to serve, which is often a deceptive cause.
Despite the government’s call to the public, to have an eye on their own neighborhood, the people in the post are not caught spying and infiltrating, therefore the post is rated as False.
On Nov 5, 2021, a Facebook post claims the embracing armed men in the image below are soldiers of the Oromia Liberation Army (OLA) and Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) that rebranded itself as Tigray Defense Forces (TDF).
The post was viral and received more than 1.4 thousand reactions and was shared more than 136 times. Although the post was deleted a day later, it had already misinformed a significant number of social media users.
However, HaqCheck looked into the image and confirmed that the picture posted below does not show OLA and TPLF soldiers hugging one another.
The year-long Tigray armed conflict has escalated to another level recently. Six months ago the Federal Government declared a unilateral ceasefire and pulled its troops out from most of the regional states.
Thereafter, TPLF forces advanced southwards and took control of some parts of the Amhara regional state.
Recently, there have been unconfirmed reports and social media claims that TPLF forces have reached the town of Kemise, the capital of the Oromia Special Zone in the Amhara regional state. The zone is mostly occupied by ethnic Oromo communities and there are claims that armed forces who call themselves OLA operate in the zone.
A few months ago TPLF forces claimed that they had signed an agreement of alliance with OLA in their fight to depose the government in Addis Ababa, whom the Ethiopian government calls “Shane” and designated as a terrorist organization.
Amid this situation, a Facebook post emerged on Nov 5, 2021, and shared an image that shows two armed men hugging one another. The post claims that the armed men in the image were OLA and TPLF (TDF) soldiers.
However, a reverse image search of the image in the post shows that the picture was taken from a previous Facebook post in 2019. The image was first published on Facebook on February 23, 2019, without any description. The original post of the image can be accessed here.
Despite the fact that TPLF forces have advanced southwards claiming they have seized the town of Kemise, the image does not prove that the armed men are OLA and TPLF troops hugging one another. Therefore, HaqCheck has confirmed that the Facebook post is not true and is rated FALSE accordingly.
