A Facebook page with more than 500,000 followers published a post with three images on May 06, 2022, reporting that “The Oromia Liberation Army (OLA) claimed that they took over Dembi Dollo district by force”. Among the 3 images attached to the post to support the claim, one of the images has an overlay text that reads “Dembi Dolo University”.
By the time this article was published, the post had more than 3000 reactions and was shared more than 900 times.
However, HaqCheck investigated the image and proved that it doesn’t show Dembi Dollo University
Therefore, HaqCheck rendered the post False.
Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) was a military wing of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) which is claimed to split later on May 1, 2021. OLA, addressed by the Ethiopian Government as “Shane”, is designated as a terrorist by the parliament. OLA is alleged to target civilians with human rights violations and gruel atrocities, especially in the East Wollega zone of the Oromia Regional State.
In August, OLA announced its alliance with the Tigray Liberation Front (TPLF), which has been fighting the Ethiopian government since Nov 2020.
Legesse Tulu, Minister of the Government Communication Service on April 2, said that the federal and Oromia state security forces were taking measures “in a coordinated and participatory manner” on OLA in collaboration with local people.
The Minister of Communication also stated that the government is launching attacks on OLA (Shene) in Nekemte, Dembidolo, and other areas in western Welega, an area where Dembi Dollo University is located.
In light of this conflict scenario, the post on Facebook tried to support its claim by writing ”Dembi Dollo University” on the image to show that OLA took over the Dembi Dollo district.
After examining the picture using a reverse image search, Haqcheck confirmed that the photo was first posted on December 21, 2017, on BBC News Amharic with the caption “two students died at Wollega University”
Therefore, HaqCheck inspected the image used to support the claim and rendered it FALSE.
