FALSE: This image does not show an Eritrean soldier captured in Oromia
The image of Muuse Muudey, who is from Somalia, was cropped from the original which was first posted online in 2020.
A Twitter post with an image claiming to show an Eritrean soldier named Sisay Tesfabirhan, who was allegedly captured in Oromia, is FALSE.
The text on the post reads, “His name is Sisay Tesfabirhan, one of the #Eritrean Soldiers who captured today, by #OromoLiberationArmy a.k.a WBO in western #Oromia !”
The Ethiopian government and the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) signed an agreement to end hostilities on August 7, 2018, in Eritrea’s capital, Asmara.
Previously, OLF had been labelled as a terrorist organisation. However, following the peace agreement signed in Asmara, the Ethiopian House of People’s Representatives (HPR) removed OLF from its terrorist list.
In 2019, it was reported that the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), which is the armed wing of OLF, officially separated from the party, OLF. The OLF army faulted the national government for what it termed “continued arrest of its members” despite the ceasefire.
A spokesperson from the OLA called for independent investigations over allegations the outfit was responsible for ongoing attacks in the Oromia region, in a statement published by Al Jazeera on March 29, 2021.
In May 2021, the Ethiopian government outlawed the OLA and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), terming them terrorist organisations.
TPLF troops have been in conflict with the Ethiopian government after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched a military offensive, accusing them of attacking two federal army camps in the northern region of Tigray.
While the Ethiopian government indeed confirmed the presence of Eritrean troops in Tigray, and escalating tension in Oromia, the post claiming to show an image of an Eritrean soldier captured in Oromia is not true.
A reverse image search reveals that the photo was used in 2020. It was published on Somali Spot on April 15, 2020.
The image was cropped from a picture that shows the alleged Eritrean soldier and an unidentified woman. Also, the man is identified as Muuse Muudey who released a Tik Tok video on April 4, 2020.
The same image appears on the thumbnail of a video on YouTube that dates back to 2020.
PesaCheck has investigated a Twitter post with an image claiming to show a person named Sisay Tesfabirhan, an Eritrean soldier, captured in Oromia and finds it to be FALSE.
This post is part of an ongoing series of PesaCheck fact-checks examining content marked as potential misinformation on Facebook and other social media platforms.
By partnering with Facebook and similar social media platforms, third-party fact-checking organisations like PesaCheck are helping to sort fact from fiction. We do this by giving the public deeper insight and context to posts they see in their social media feeds.
Have you spotted what you think is fake news or false information on Facebook? Here’s how you can report. And, here’s more information on PesaCheck’s methodology for fact-checking questionable content.
This fact-check was written by PesaCheck Fact-Checker Kiya Ali and edited by PesaCheck copy editor Eden Berhane, and chief copy editor Rose Lukalo. The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck Managing Editor Enock Nyariki.
PesaCheck is East Africa’s first public finance fact-checking initiative. It was co-founded by Catherine Gicheru and Justin Arenstein, and is being incubated by the continent’s largest civic technology and data journalism accelerator: Code for Africa. It seeks to help the public separate fact from fiction in public pronouncements about the numbers that shape our world, with a special emphasis on pronouncements about public finances that shape government’s delivery of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) public services, such as healthcare, rural development and access to water / sanitation. PesaCheck also tests the accuracy of media reportage. To find out more about the project, visit pesacheck.org.
PesaCheck is an initiative of Code for Africa, through its innovateAFRICA fund, with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie, in partnership with a coalition of local African media and other civic watchdog organisations.
