A Facebook post by a Facebook user named Dereje AReda Teshome (with more than 20,200 followers) was made showing the picture of Prime minister Abiy Ahmed visiting Jawar Mohamed at a hospital, with a caption written in Amharic that reads “The man is Humble… the one that is being visited.” It also adds a satirical comment about the picture saying, “Why is his arms darker, Was he beaten up?”. HaqCheck has interrogated the post and confirmed that the picture doesn’t show Jawar Mohamed on a hospital bed, therefore rated it as ALTERED.
There are reports that Jawar Mohamed, Bekele Gerba and others are on a hunger strike since 27 January 2021. The purpose of the strike is mainly to ask the government to release all Oromo political prisoners, allow Oromo political party offices to be opened and operate fully, and demand that the mistreatment and imprisonment of the visitors and relatives who attend their hearings and visit them in prison. According to the statement by Oromo Political Prisoners Defense Team on 3 March 2021, the prisoners were on the 35th day of their hunger strike and they are all in critical condition, leading them to be taken to Landmark General Hospital, a private health care center, on 2 March 2021 after the Federal supreme court granted them access to private medical facility on 1 March 2021.
However, a reverse image search of the picture shows that the picture was taken on 06 December 2020, while the Prime minister was visiting members of the Defense Forces who were wounded and hospitalized in the conflict in Tigray. The original picture shows a picture of the Prime minister with an injured Defense force member. It was also published on Fana broadcasting corporate, Afan Oromo website and can be found by the following link
Original Picture
Altered Picture
Despite there being reports that Jawar Mohamed was taken to hospital due to his critical condition, HaqCheck has interrogated the post and confirmed that the picture doesn’t show Jawar Mohamed on a hospital bed and being visited by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, therefore rated it as ALTERED.
Fact Checked by: Rehobot Ayalew
The following article is part of HaqCheck, Addis Zeybe’s multilingual fact checking running in five languages (Affan Oromo, Amharic, Somali, Tigrinya and English)
