Ethiopia has been embroiled in a diplomatic row with Somalia after striking a deal with breakaway region Somaliland for access to a port on the Gulf of Aden. A recent post on Facebook claims to share a video clip of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed issuing a “stern warning” to both Somalia and Egypt, which has taken Somalia’s side in the quarrel. However, this is misleading: the video is more than three years old and shows Abiy speaking about the war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region at the time. At no point in the clip, nor in the original footage of Abiy’s speech, did he make any mention of Egypt or Somalia.
The Facebook post has been shared more than 100 times and viewed 13,000 times since it was published on August 30, 2024.
“Stern warning to Somalia and Egypt,” reads the Amharic caption, a reference to the video in the post featuring Abiy in military uniform.
“We must continue to learn, read and prepare. However, we should not boast. We will win when we engage in a war, but we will not boast until we engage,” Abiy says in the 11-second clip.
The post also includes a photo of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud.
Diplomatic row
Earlier this year, Ethiopia signed an agreement with Somaliland – a breakaway region of Somalia – that allows Addis Ababa to use Somaliland’s port in Berbera (archived here).
The deal led to a major diplomatic row between Ethiopia and Somalia, with the latter’s president recently accusing Ethiopia of violating its sovereignty (archiving here).
Two rounds of talks mediated by Turkey ended without any significant results. A third round of talks has been scheduled for September 17, 2024.
Meanwhile, Ethiopia has been involved in a long-standing dispute with Egypt over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), a mega hydropower dam on the Nile (archived here).
Egypt has expressed fears that the massive dam could greatly reduce the flow of the Nile, while Ethiopia sees the dam as important to its development. Several talks between the two countries have ended without agreement.
Amid this dispute, Egypt sent military equipment to Somalia in late August 2024, escalating tensions between Ethiopia on one side and Egypt and Somalia on the other (archived here).
However, the claim that the clip shows Abiy issuing a warning to Egypt and Somalia is misleading.
Old video
AFP Fact Check used the video verification tool InVID-WeVerify to conduct reverse image searches on keyframes from the video.
The results led to the original video, a much longer version, published on the official Facebook page of state-affiliated broadcaster Oromia Broadcasting Network (OBN) on December 13, 2020 (archived here).
The 23-minute-long video is captioned in Afaan Oromoo and translates to: “Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed discussed with army leaders in Mekelle.”
Mekelle is the capital of the Tigray region, where the Ethiopian army fought against the insurgent Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) during a two-year war from November 2020 to November 2022.
The army captured Mekelle in late November 2020 and Abiy went to the city the next month to meet army leaders (archived here).
In the video, Abiy wears an Ethiopian army uniform and talks about various topics such as discipline and military tactics.
The original video begins with Abiy saying in Amharic that “the Ethiopian Defense Forces have proven that they are defending the sovereignty of their country as their ancestors did and they have also proven that they are capable of fulfilling legal and military duties”.
He says the army had taken coordinated action against the TPLF and “won victories in a way that reduces casualties”.
From 18’22” to 18’33”, he adds: “We must continue to learn, read and prepare. However, we should not boast. We will win when we engage in a war, but we will not boast until we engage.”
The misleading clip recently shared on Facebook comes from this segment of the original video.
AFP Fact Check reviewed both the original video and the misleading clip and established that Abiy at no point issued a warning to Somalia and Egypt, nor did he mention these countries.
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