On Mar 5, 2023, a Facebook page posted two images claiming that Eritrean troops were destroying forests in Adiyabo, a locality in the northwestern zone of Tigray bordered by Eritrea.
The Facebook page has over a hundred thousand followers and the post was shared twenty-four times at the moment.
However, HaqCheck looked into the images and confirmed that the pictures don’t support the claim. The images were first posted on different websites on Mar 26, 2019, and Mar 27, 2021, respectively.
War broke out between the federal government of Ethiopia and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) on Nov 3, 2020.
The Eritrea Defence Forces, Amhara regional militia, and other armed forces were involved in the war alongside the federal government of Ethiopia against TPLF forces.
However, the war came to an end after the two parties signed a peace agreement in Pretoria, South Africa on Nov 2, 2022. The peace agreement asserts that TPLF forces shall surrender their weapons and foreign and non-ENDF armed forces to leave the regional state of Tigray.
The Ethiopian government and the TPLF agreed that the disarmament of heavy weapons of the TPLF should be done concurrently with the withdrawal of Eritrean and non-ENDF forces from Tigray.
The TPLF authorities and media outlets had accused Eritrean troops of atrocities and looting.
After the Ethiopian government and the TPLF signed the peace treaty, Eritrean soldiers withdrew from major towns in the Tigray regional state and pooled into the border areas.
Yet, the TPLF authorities recently stated that Eritrean troops were still in the regional state of Tigray and didn’t fully withdraw.
Against this backdrop, a Facebook page posted two images on March 5, 2023, claiming that Eritrean soldiers were destroying forests in Adiyabo, a locality north of Shire town.
However, HaqCheck looked into the images and confirmed that the pictures don’t prove the claim.
The images were old and taken from previous publications.
The first image was posted on March 26, 2019, by the DW website to report the incidence of wildfire at Bale National Park.
The second picture was published by the BBC News Tigrinya on Mar 27, 2021, along with a story regarding a bushfire that occurred in Ethiopia.
Therefore, HaqCheck rated the post as False due to the use of irrelevant pictures.
