A mega road project was announced in June 2024 in the Ethiopian region of Oromia to connect the cities around the capital Addis Ababa. Posts shared on Facebook on the same day claimed to show the design of the new Sheger city expressway. However, the photo was taken in China and features part of the Xiangyang-Shiyan Expressway in Hubei province. AFP Fact Check confirmed the location using satellite imagery.
The post was published on June 22, 2024 in Afaan Oromoo – one of Ethiopia’s major languages.
“Here is the design of Sheger city ring road,” the English translation reads.
The image shows an extensive network of highways, exit ramps and bridges stretching into the distance.
Similar posts were also shared on Facebook here, here and here.
Road project
In March 2023, Oromia, the largest region in Ethiopia, began preparing the ground for the city of Sheger, which comprises 12 sub-cities around Addis Ababa, the country’s capital (archived here).
It led to public grievances when the regional authorities began demolishing houses that they claimed had been built “without building permits”.
On June 22, 2024, Oromia authorities announced that plans were underway to begin construction on a highway to connect five of the sub cities of Sheger (archived here). The first phase costing 4.5 billion birr (about $78 million) is expected to take five years, but further details about the companies behind the project were not disclosed.
However, designs for the Sheger road that were released at the launch ceremony do not match the image circulating on social media.
China expressway
A Google reverse image search together with keyword searches led to a similar photo in an article published by the city of Xiangyang’s publicity department on July 17, 2019 (archived link).
The photo’s caption says it shows an aerial view of the Xiangyang-Shiyan Expressway linking the cities of Xiangyang and Gaoying in Hubei province (archived link).
Combined with the names of the cities and the highway structure shown in the photo, AFP Fact Check found and identified corresponding satellite images to the sections on Google Maps.
A photo published in February 2014 on the state-owned newspaper China Daily’s site shows a similar section of the expressway and the caption says it links Xiangyang (formerly Xiangfan) and Jingzhou, a southern city in Hubei (archived link).
The Oromia region posted images of the concept drawings for the “mega construction project of Sheger city expressway” on Facebook (archived here), showing a different design to the project in China.
AFP Fact Check has previously debunked similar claims about Ethiopian infrastructure projects here and here.
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