PARTLY FALSE: This image isn’t of Ethiopian troops moving to Somalia border
The image shows Ethiopian troops near the border of Tigray and Amhara regions in Ethiopia.
This post on X (formerly Twitter) with an image claiming to show that Ethiopian soldiers deployed to the Somalia border in September 2024 is PARTLY FALSE.
The photo shows a military vehicle carrying armed men waving the Ethiopian flag.
The text accompanying the image reads, “Ethiopia has moved over 20,000 soldiers and a large amount of armored vehicles to the border with Somalia! We are probably facing another war in Africa. Disputes between Ethiopia and Somalia are very heated and war hangs in the balance”.
Diplomatic tension between Ethiopia and Somalia have escalated following a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed earlier this year between Ethiopia and Somaliland. The MoU grants Ethiopia access to the sea and in return, Ethiopia to recognise Somaliland’s statehood. Somalia rejected this MoU.
Ethiopia deployed troops at the border with Somalia on 5 September 2024, as seen here and here. Somalia has also accused Ethiopia of deploying troops across their shared border.
To verify the image in question, the Federation of Somali Journalists (FESOJ) conducted a Google reverse image search results showing that the picture is not of Ethiopian defence forces moving towards the Somali border in September 2024.
The image was published by the Times of Israel alongside the caption, “Ethiopian military personnel sitting on an armoured personnel carrier next to a national flag, on a road in an area near the border of the Tigray and Amhara regions of Ethiopia.” The image is credited to the Ethiopian News Agency via AP.
The image was also published on this website on 18 November 2020 in an article headlined, “People go hungry in Ethiopia’s Tigray as conflict marches on.”
The Federation of Somali Journalists (FESOJ) has looked into a post on X (formerly Twitter) with an image claiming to show that Ethiopian soldiers deployed to the Somalia border in September 2024 and finds it to be PARTLY FALSE.
This fact-check was produced by Federation of Somali Journalists (FESOJ) under the African Fact-Checking Incubator programme, with support from PesaCheck, Code for Africa’s fact-checking initiative, and the African Fact-Checking Alliance(AFCA).
