FALSE: This image does not show cattle dying in Guji, Ethiopia
The original image shows the impact of drought in Kenya and was published on 20 December 2021.
A Facebook post claiming to show cattle ravaged by hunger in the Guji zone of Ethiopia is FALSE.
The text posted with the image, written in Afaan Oromo, translates: “The cows are dying and suffering from hunger in Guji town.”
Guji is a zone in the Oromia region of Ethiopia.
Media have reported drought in the southern part of Oromia, especially in Borana and Guji zones. A report by VOA Amharic, for instance, shared on its official Facebook page shows more than 4,000 cattle have died in the Borana zone of Oromia region due to a failure of the bi-annual rains.
However, Google reverse image search results show that the photo in the claim is not related to events in the Guji Zone of Ethiopia.
The image was posted on the Baitulmaal website on 20 December 2021. The photo features in an article describing the impact of drought in Kenya.
PesaCheck has looked into a Facebook image claiming to show cattle ravaged by hunger in the Guji zone of Ethiopia 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 a PesaCheck fact-checker based in Ethiopia (name withheld for security reasons)and edited by PesaCheck chief copy editor Rose Lukalo. The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck acting managing editor Doreen Wainainah.
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.
