US Embassy opening a consular office in Mekelle
The claim that the US embassy in Addis Ababa opened a consular office in Mekelle, Tigray was one of the major topics of social media controversies over the week.
Wazema Radio reported that the American Embassy in Addis Ababa opened a consular office in Mekelle.
Thereafter, counterclaims came saying that the information was false. Sheger FM, a local radio channel reported that the American Embassy denied the information that it opened a consular office in Mekelle.
HaqCheck asked the US embassy in Addis Ababa regarding the issue. The Embassy’s spokesperson told HaqCheck that the claims regarding the opening of a consular office in Mekelle, Tigray are all false.
Eritrean soldiers recently killed in Tigray
A Facebook post shared an image on Feb 19, 2022, claiming that thousands of Eritrean soldiers were recently killed in Tigray. The Facebook post published by the page, which has over 54 thousand followers, was shared more than 169 times at the time.
The post shared an image with the claim that Eritrean troops were recently killed in Tigray after they tried to invade the regional state.
However, the image was taken and cropped from an old post on the Internet. The original image was published on June 13, 2019, along with an article written on the Eritrean Martyrs’ Day, annually commemorated on June 20.
Cropped image
HaqCheck fact-checked the claim and confirmed that the image below doesn’t show the Eritrean troops recently killed in Tigray. Therefore, it is confirmed that the image used to support the claim is old and rated the post FALSE.
People killed due to mine collapse
One of the claims HaqCheck fact-checked last week was a claim that seven people were killed by a mine collapse. Africanews.com, a news website on Feb 23, 2022, shared a news report titled, “Seven killed in Ethiopia mine collapse.”
According to Africanews’ news report, the incident occurred as the artisanal gold miners were caught up by the incident and buried underground while they were searching for gold.
However, HaqCheck inspected the image and proved that the image doesn’t prove a mine collapse incident in Ethiopia. The picture was first found on Dec 28, 2021, on different news websites with a title, “More than 30 killed in Sudan gold mine collapse.” At least 31 miners were killed and eight missing in Sudan, according to the reports in the different websites.
The Associated Press reported the incident that a rudimentary gold mine collapsed and the country’s state-run mining company said, “workers and villagers were searching the Darsaya mine for more bodies and possible survivors” On Dec 29, 2021. The mine is located in the Fuja village, around 700 kilometers south of the capital of Khartoum.
The News report also used two of its tweets from last year. Both of them are about a mine collapse that happened in Niger and Sudan respectively.
Therefore, HaqCheck rated the picture used to support the claim False. Additionally, there is no official news about the mine collapse incident so far.
Recommendations
We recommend local and international media outlets to be responsible during reporting and make holistic analysis regarding any matter at hand. They should give suffising information to the audience.
Social media users are urged to cross-check information, images, videos, or claims before they share them with their fellows. They should be able to question the credibility of the information they see before they take it for granted.
HaqCheck always recommends that social media influencers and content creators be responsible for their activities on their platforms. We urge them to refrain from intentionally or unintentionally creating and circulating false information.
