A video published on a YouTube channel, website, and Facebook page with more than 484,277 followers claims the video to show “Soldiers and Teddy Afro in an Amazing Video” and that the vocalist had surprised the army with his sudden presence.
By the time this article is published the video is viewed more than 20,900 times on the website and the Facebook post has been shared more than 60 times with 1700 reactions. The video was first published before the Facebook and Website posts on the YouTube channel on September 16 having 1,108 viewers.
However, the video in the Facebook post doesn’t show Teddy Afro entertaining cadets at Tolay Military Training Center, and the post is rendered False.
Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) forces and the Federal Government of Ethiopia have been in active war in Northern Ethiopia Since November 2020. Different local media outlets have been reporting about massive recruitment and training of youth by the Ethiopian National Defence Force in different training centers. Artists and Government officials are often observed paying visits to new cadets at different Army training centers and at war fronts with the supposition of motivating and encouraging the soldiers.
Teddy Afro (Aka Tewodros Kassahun) is a prominent musician with a huge fan base in Ethiopia and Eritrea. “Ethiopia”, his 5th album, got topped on the week of May 20, 2017’s Billboard World Albums Chart. The claim was circulating in light of this formidable situation for its assertion.
However, HaqCheck looked into the thumbnail of the video and confirmed that it is photoshopped, a creative trick of merging the vocalist’s image in the middle of a mass army gathering. Moreover, the video content is made with a slideshow of various pictures of Teddy Afro and the army.
Furthermore, in an effort to ratify the claim, we spoke to Getachew Manguday, the manager of the vocalist. “The claim is totally false. Teddy Afro has never been to Tolay Military Training Center in any scheduled program with the army, he explained.
Therefore, the video circulating around different social media is confirmed to be False.
