On Apr 18, a misleading claim appeared alleging that Eritrea recently agreed to withdraw its troops from Ethiopia’s Tigray Regional State.
A screenshot of the news was shared with a text in Amharic that reads, “We are getting close to the beginning of the end. There will be no better time than this for those who claim to fight for the cause of Oromia.” Many people reacted to the post and it was shared on the platform over six times.
However, HaqCheck investigated the matter and found out that the news was from a year ago published on Reuters.
There has been an armed conflict between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Ethiopian government since Nov 3, 2020.
The Eritrean government had also been involved in the armed conflict on the side of the federal government of Ethiopia. There have been repeated calls from the international communities to withdraw its troops from the Tigray regional state.
Recently the Ethiopian government and TPLF agreed upon a humanitarian truce. Since then, humanitarian aid has been reported to enter Tigray after months.
In this context, a misleading Facebook post appeared claiming that Eritrea recently agreed to begin withdrawing troops from areas of the Tigray Regional State. The post didn’t say the claim directly but rather misled people into understanding that Eritrea is pulling back its soldiers from Ethiopia.
However, the referred news that Eritrea agreed to withdraw soldiers from Ethiopia is old. The screenshot of the news by Reuters was taken a year ago.
On Apr 16, 2021, Eritrea, in a letter written to the United Nations Security Council, admitted its troops are found in Ethiopia and agreed to start withdrawing from the Tigray region. The news was then published among others by Reuters. But the Facebook post presented a screenshot of the news, deceiving people that the news was recent.Therefore, HaqCheck rated the claim MISLEADING.
