A viral Facebook post was made on Nov 18, 2022, sharing four images. The post claimed that the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) was burying [hiding] weapons and ammunition. It was shared close to one hundred times.
However, HaqCheck confirmed that the images don’t prove the claim and rated the post as False.
The Ethiopian federal government and the TPLF had been fighting a two years war that started on Nov 3, 2022.
They agreed to a humanitarian truce at the end of the month of March 2022. However, fighting resumed between the belligerents in August.
Reports indicated that there were informal talks between the TPLF and the Ethiopian federal government to solve the war in a peaceful manner.
Finally, they signed a peace deal dubbed ‘Agreement for lasting peace through a permanent cessation of hostilities between the Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF)’ on Nov 2, 2022.
According to the deal, TPLF agreed to surrender its weapons to the Ethiopian government and a transitional government to be installed in Mekelle until a regional election is conducted
After the peace agreement was signed, there were social media claims that TPLF was hiding weapons and preparing for another fight with the Ethiopian government.
Against this backdrop, a Facebook post came out sharing four images with a claim that the TPLF was burying its weapons and ammunition.
However, HaqCheck confirmed that the images don’t prove the claim. They are old and taken from other publications.
The first image was taken from a website that claims to belong to a truck cabins manufacturer company located in central China. The description states that the picture shows underground LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) tanks produced by the manufacturer.
The second picture is of a surviving World War II tank which was buried under three meters of clay and was dug up in May 2017.
The third image was first published by Reuters on Jul 27, 2021, and shows abandoned ammunition boxes after a battle between the Ethiopian government and TPLF forces in Tigray.
The fourth picture was published by the New York Times on Jul 11, 2021, and it claimed the image shows munitions and an upturned truck abandoned by the Ethiopian military after an ambush south of Mekelle.Thus, the post was rated False because it used inaccurate pictures to support the claim.
