FALSE: This image does not show cattle that died in the drought in Bale, Ethiopia, in 2021
The image has been used on different online platforms since 2017.
A Facebook image claiming to show the drought in Bale, Ethiopia, in 2021 is FALSE.
“The drought in Bale is getting worse. The Oromia region has an obligation to stand on the side of these people in this matter, it is important for the government to help its own public rather than going to unnecessary war and wasting resources to appease the war mongers. ” part of the post in Amharic reads.
The post used one image to advance the claim. Google and Yandex reverse image search results, as seen here and here, show that the image was published previously on different online platforms like the Veterinaires Sans Frontieres and Medan Wisata websites.
Image credit is given to Tierärzte ohne Grenzen (Veterinarians without borders, Austria). Google translate was used to translate the description of the image that was posted on 24 April 2017:
The UNICEF Ethiopia Humanitarian Situation Report, which was released in September 2021, shows there is a water shortage in different parts of Oromia including Bale leading to drought. However, the image under investigation does not show the drought in Bale in 2021.
PesaCheck has looked into a Facebook image claiming to show the drought in Bale, Ethiopia, in 2021 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 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.
