A Facebook page with more than seven thousand followers shared an image on Dec 5, 2022, inexplicitly claiming that the picture shows ethnic Amharas recently executed in the Oromia region.
The image was captioned with an English text that reads “Amhara genocide in Oromia region of Ethiopia”.
By the time this article was published the post was shared over 39 times.
However, HaqCheck inspected the image and confirmed that it doesn’t prove the claim. Thus, the post was rendered False.
There have been recurrent conflicts and violence in Oromia, particularly in the Wollega zones of the regional state. The armed conflict between the Ethiopian government and the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), a military organization commonly addressed by the government as Shene has been intensified.
Many civilians including ethnic Amharas and Oromos were killed amid the armed conflict. Reports indicate that ethnic Amharas were mass evicted and mass killed in the conflict-prone areas.
The government and the OLA have blamed each other for the killings.
Mass killing and violence were recently reported in the East Wollega zone amidst an armed fighting between the belligerents along the border areas between the Amhara and Oromia regional states.
The image-backed claim that Amhara civilians were recently executed in Oromia appeared on Facebook against this backdrop.
HaqCheck inquired in the image was authentic. Yet, the picture was old and was previously published in August 2020.
The original image was first published by a news website stating that the picture shows two Somali soldiers publicly executed for allegedly raping a 10-years old boy in Baidoa, a city in the South West region of Somalia.
The news site said that the former soldiers were paraded on the outskirts of town before they were shot to death by the firing squad of the 60th division of the Somali National Army.Therefore, HaqCheck rated the post False for using an inaccurate image to support the claim.
