FALSE: This image isn’t of Ethiopian forces in Somalia in August 2024

The image is from Ethiopia and was initially published on August 16, 2023.

This post on X (formerly Twitter), with an image claiming to show thousands of Ethiopian forces that allegedly entered into the southern region of Somalia is FALSE.

“ Thousands of Ethiopian forces entered into southern regions of the country. They stationed in  Gedo region, to avoid Egyptian deployment in the area. The Somali people must unite against any foreign enemy,” reads the post.

The claim was shared on social media as the bilateral relations between Somalia, and Ethiopia have been deteriorating in recent months.

In January 2024, the landlocked Ethiopia had signed an MoU deal with the breakaway northern Somali region of Somaliland for access to the sea, as reported here.

That move by Addis angered the federal government in Mogadishu, which called the agreement an ‘act of aggression’, as reported here.

On August 14, the federal government of Somalia signed a defense pact with Egypt in Cairo, with the presence of two heads of government, Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud, and Abdelfattah El-sisi; Somali presidency announced.  

However, to verify the authencity of the image, Puntland Mirror conducted a Google Reverse search and established that the image is of Ethiopian Fano militia forces with military gear in Ethiopia as reported here.  

The image was also published here, here and here.

Furthermore, a Google search did not yield results for the above claim.

Puntland Mirror examined a post on X with an image claiming to show thousands of Ethiopian forces in the southern regions of Somalia and found it to be FALSE.

This fact-check was produced by Puntland Mirror 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).