Latest news with #AratKilo
AFP
04-08-2025
- Politics
- AFP
Posts falsely claim to show footage of Ethiopian prime minister fleeing country after shooting
The post, published on Facebook on July 22, 2025, includes a video with text overlays in Amharic that translate to: 'Arat Kilo is in turmoil following the shooting of Abiy by one of his security guards.' Image Screenshot of the false post, taken on July 29, 2025 Arat Kilo is the location of the Ethiopian prime minister's office. The post has been shared more than 230 times. Another post shared by the same Facebook account a day later claims a 'secretly recorded video shows Abiy Ahmed fleeing the country with his wife following yesterday's protest'. Image Screenshot of the false post, taken on July 29, 2025 The post has been shared more than 140 times. The Facebook account spreading these claims is based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, according to information in the bio. The account regularly publishes posts on political developments in the Sidama region — one of Ethiopia's 12 regional states. Despite the end of the brutal two-year war in the northern region of Tigray in November 2022, Ethiopia is still plagued by conflict, including in the Oromia and Amhara regions. Oromia, Ethiopia's most populous region, has been dominated by an insurgency involving the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) since 2018, despite attempted peace talks that have failed (archived here). More recently, a local militia known as Fano was initially allied with the Ethiopian federal government before launching an armed rebellion in the Amhara region in April 2023 (archived here). The armed conflicts have posed major challenges for Abiy and his government. However, the videos do not show Abiy fleeing the country after being shot. Ethiopian cargo flight AFP Fact Check used the video verification tool InVID-WeVerify to conduct reverse image searches on keyframes from the video showing an aeroplane taking off at night. The results established that the video was first published on TikTok in 2021, with the caption that it shows an Ethiopian Airlines cargo Boeing 777 leaving for Liège in Belgium (archived here). An official statement issued in 2024 by Ethiopian Airlines confirms how the airports in Ethiopia and Liège have maintained a partnership for the transport of goods between Europe, Africa and the rest of the world for more than 17 years (archived here). Despite claims in the post that Abiy had fled the country following a protest in the capital on July 21, 2025, searches revealed there were no demonstrations in Addis Ababa on that day. We could not find the source of the second video, which appears to be user-generated content (UGC) -- meaning it was filmed by a bystander -- of police cars racing through a street, purportedly after Abiy was shot by a bodyguard. AFP Fact Check compared the images of the vehicles, some of them marked with the letters 'EFP' in yellow, and found they resemble the fleet used by the Ethiopian Federal Police. Image Screenshots of the false video (left) and matching image of vehicle from Ethiopian federal police official Facebook page We have reached out to the Ethiopian Federal Police for comment. The article will be updated accordingly. A keyword search confirmed that Abiy delivered a public speech at the World Food Systems event, co-hosted with Italy and held in Addis Ababa, on July 28, 2025 -- days after the posts were published (archived here). Notably, there are no credible media reports of Abiy being shot by one of his security guards, the day before he purportedly fled the country with his wife.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
AI-generated song used to falsely claim Ethiopian pop star attacked country's prime minister
'Here is the full song,' reads an Amharic caption posted together with the video on April 19, 2025. The video, which has been shared more than 750 times, starts with a song in Amharic. The lyrics are displayed on the screen. Translated into English, they read: 'Abiy, the prophet, conquered Arat Kilo. I am fed up, my people are starving. Her house is located in Arat Kilo. Her father is Fano, he is marching to settle in Shagar.' Arat Kilo is the location of the Ethiopian National Palace and where the office of the prime minister is located. Fano is a rebel force in Ethiopia's Amhara region and Shagar is another name for Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa. While the song plays, various images, including photos of Teddy and the Ethiopian flag, pop up on the screen. The song continues: 'Oh! Oh! Abiy zero! Abiy zero! Life without love, Abiy zero! Zero! Yekatit's monument was erected by your side. The banda is still there. Why is that, Arat Kilo?' The Yekatit 12 monument is a memorial in Addis Ababa near the palace. It commemorates a 1937 massacre by Italian troops (archived here). 'Banda' means traitor. In this context, the song slams Abiy as a traitor who failed Ethiopia. Although some users commented under the video that the lyrics did not match the quality of Teddy's music, others believed the song was released by the singer. 'Teddy, my king. You rocked it. Long live,' reads one comment. Teddy, whose real name is Tewodros Kassahun, is one of Ethiopia's biggest pop stars. His lyrics and music videos are seen by many as being critical of the Ethiopian authorities. Some of his songs were banned during the previous regime under the rule of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). His music has repeatedly caused controversy. His album 'Tikur Sew', which was about the Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II, angered some in the country's largest ethnic group, the Oromos. 'Tikur Sew' was seen as an affront because it glorified an emperor who brutally incorporated Oromo territory into Ethiopia's borders (archived here). However, the song in which Teddy allegedly criticises Abiy was created by AI and is not one of his singles. AFP Fact Check used the video verification tool InVID-WeVerify to conduct reverse image searches on keyframes from the video. The video was originally published on a YouTube channel called 'Fikat entertainment' on April 19, 2025 (archived here). The music clip is captioned 'Teddy Afro: Zero'. YouTube's warning notice describes the footage as 'synthetic content' created by the channel owner using artificial content creation tools. Since March 2024, YouTube has asked content creators to explicitly disclose and label content made with AI tools (archived here). A review of the channel shows that it has published multiple AI-generated songs using the voices of popular Ethiopian singers. AFP Fact Check also ran the song through an audio deepfake detector called Deepfake Total. The results showed a more than 90 percent probability that the song was artificially created. AFP Fact Check contacted Teddy's manager Getachew Manguday, who has yet to respond to our request for a comment. We also searched Teddy's social media accounts here, here and here and found no trace of the AI-generated song. AFP Fact Check has previously debunked AI-generated videos on a range of topics in Ethiopia, such as here and here.
AFP
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- AFP
AI-generated song used to falsely claim Ethiopian pop star attacked country's prime minister
'Here is the full song,' reads an Amharic caption posted together with the video on April 19, 2025. Image Screenshot of the false post with the AI-generated song, taken on April 25, 2025 The video, which has been shared more than 750 times, starts with a song in Amharic. The lyrics are displayed on the screen. Translated into English, they read: 'Abiy, the prophet, conquered Arat Kilo. I am fed up, my people are starving. Her house is located in Arat Kilo. Her father is Fano, he is marching to settle in Shagar.' Arat Kilo is the location of the Ethiopian National Palace and where the office of the prime minister is located. Fano is a rebel force in Ethiopia's Amhara region and Shagar is another name for Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa. While the song plays, various images, including photos of Teddy and the Ethiopian flag, pop up on the screen. The song continues: 'Oh! Oh! Abiy zero! Abiy zero! Life without love, Abiy zero! Zero! Yekatit's monument was erected by your side. The banda is still there. Why is that, Arat Kilo?' The Yekatit 12 monument is a memorial in Addis Ababa near the palace. It commemorates a 1937 massacre by Italian troops (archived here). 'Banda' means traitor. In this context, the song slams Abiy as a traitor who failed Ethiopia. Although some users commented under the video that the lyrics did not match the quality of Teddy's music, others believed the song was released by the singer. 'Teddy, my king. You rocked it. Long live,' reads one comment. Pop star Teddy, whose real name is Tewodros Kassahun, is one of Ethiopia's biggest pop stars. His lyrics and music videos are seen by many as being critical of the Ethiopian authorities. Some of his songs were banned during the previous regime under the rule of the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF). His music has repeatedly caused controversy. His album 'Tikur Sew', which was about the Ethiopian Emperor Menelik II, angered some in the country's largest ethnic group, the Oromos. 'Tikur Sew' was seen as an affront because it glorified an emperor who brutally incorporated Oromo territory into Ethiopia's borders (archived here). However, the song in which Teddy allegedly criticises Abiy was created by AI and is not one of his singles. Synthetic content AFP Fact Check used the video verification tool InVID-WeVerify to conduct reverse image searches on keyframes from the video. The video was originally published on a YouTube channel called 'Fikat entertainment' on April 19, 2025 (archived here). The music clip is captioned 'Teddy Afro: Zero'. YouTube's warning notice describes the footage as 'synthetic content' created by the channel owner using artificial content creation tools. Image Screenshot of the YouTube notice on AI content, taken on April 23, 2025 Since March 2024, YouTube has asked content creators to explicitly disclose and label content made with AI tools (archived here). A review of the channel shows that it has published multiple AI-generated songs using the voices of popular Ethiopian singers. AFP Fact Check also ran the song through an audio deepfake detector called Deepfake Total. Image Screenshot of the results generated by Deepfake Total, taken on April 23, 2025 The results showed a more than 90 percent probability that the song was artificially created. AFP Fact Check contacted Teddy's manager Getachew Manguday, who has yet to respond to our request for a comment. We also searched Teddy's social media accounts here, here and here and found no trace of the AI-generated song. AFP Fact Check has previously debunked AI-generated videos on a range of topics in Ethiopia, such as here and here.
