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  • 2022-12-08 (xsd:date)
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  • Video shows old speeches of Ethiopian militia leader Zemene Kassie, not his release from prison (en)
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  • A video has been shared on Facebook alongside a claim that it shows popular Ethiopian militia leader Zemene Kassie being released from prison. But this is false: the footage is from old speeches of Zemene and his co-leader Mesafint Tesfu between 2019 and 2022 addressing local communities in the Amhara regional state. The video was published on Facebook on November 9, 2022, and has since been shared over 200 times. Screenshot showing the false post, taken on December 7, 2022 The post, written in Amharic, translates to: Breaking news: Zemene Kassie has been freed. Jubilant people in Bahir Dar can be seen celebrating. The post contains 11-minute-long footage purported to show Zemene being released from prison. He is the leader of the outlawed Fano militia group based in Ethiopia's Amhara state. According to local Ethiopian media, Zemene was arrested in September 2022 in Bahir Dar, Amhara’s capital city. According to local and international media reports, the militia leader was charged with murder on November 5. The charge sheet issued by the West Gojjam public prosecutor was shared on Facebook by one of Zemene's lawyers on November 5, 2022. According to the sheet , Zemene is being held at the Bahir Dar prison. The video was also shared separately here on Facebook. But the clip does not show Zemene being released from prison. Old Zemene videos Using the video verification tool InVID-WeVerify, AFP Fact Check ran reverse image searches on keyframes from the footage and found that it is made up of three separate videos showing Zemene and his followers speaking to the people of Amhara at different events between 2019 and 2022. The first video was originally published on Facebook in January 2022 with the caption: Our struggle shall continue till our people become liberated: Zemene Kassie. In the video, Zemene spoke about politician Eskinder Nega, who was released from prison in January 2022. The second video was originally published on the Asrat Media YouTube channel in April 2019. According to the Amharic overlay, it was a speech delivered by Zemene Kassie on the Amhara Youth Association Meeting in Debre Markos in Amhara. Zemene spoke about Amhara nationalism and the struggles the people of Amhara face in the country. The final clip shows Tefsu addressing a group of people dressed in military regalia and carrying weapons. The video, posted on Facebook in September 2022, carries the caption: What did patriot Mesafint Tesfu say about Zemene? He spoke about the imprisonment of Zemene and asked for his immediate release. We contacted Zemene’s lawyers for more information about his arrest and will update it when we have a response. Peace deal struck The claim surfaced shortly after a peace deal was struck between the Ethiopian federal government and Tigrayan rebels aimed at ending a brutal two-year conflict and humanitarian crisis in northern Ethiopia. The war spread to the neighbouring regions of Amhara and Afar and drew in Eritrean forces, leaving Tigray devastated and lacking access to basic services including banking, electricity, fuel and communications for more than a year. All sides have been accused of abuses, while the United Nations says more than two million Ethiopians have been displaced and hundreds of thousands are in extreme food insecurity. (en)
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