Since November 2020, Ethiopia continues to face war in the Tigray region. A hostility that caused the death of tens of thousands of people. On February 7, 2022, this tweet shared images of bodies with claims that this was a mass killing in Oromia.
Background
Similar to these images, Piga Firimbi previously looked into misleading posts from the Tigrayan war. One for instance claimed to show an airstrike in Mekelle, Tigray’s largest capital.
The most recent of such offensive operations was experienced on February 8, 2022. CNN accounts for the death of almost 50 people in the Tigray region. However, the Ethiopian government continues to deny allegations of launching airstrikes.
Verification
The earliest this image appeared on the internet was between April 7, 2021 and April 8, 2021. According to reverse image searches on Bing, it shows the impact of territorial disputes in Ethiopia’s Afar State. Not Oromia.
These clashes which majorly involved Afar and Somali defense forces left about 130 soldiers and civilians dead, with the displacement of over 5,000 people. FaroDiroma further adds that these attacks also affected bordering towns of Afar.
Verdict
This image does NOT show recent killings in Oromia, Ethiopia.
This story was produced by Africa Uncensored in partnership with Code for Africa with support from Deutsche Welle Akademie.
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