In June 2024, a mega-road project was announced in Ethiopia’s Oromia region to connect cities around the capital Addis Ababa. Posts shared on Facebook the same day claimed to show the design of the new Sheger urban highway. However, the photo was taken in China and shows a section of the Xiangyang-Shiyan Expressway in Hubei province. AFP Fact Check confirmed the location using satellite imagery.
The after was published on June 22, 2024 in Afaan Oromoo, one of the major languages of Ethiopia.
“Here is the design of the Sheger City Ring Road,” reads the English translation.
The image shows an extensive network of highways, exits and bridges that stretches 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, started the preparations the land for the city of Sheger, which includes twelve sub-cities around Addis Ababa, the country’s capital (archived here).
It led to public complaints when regional authorities began demolishing houses they claimed had been built “without a building permit”.
On June 22, 2024, the authorities of Oromia announced that there were plans to begin construction of a highway that would connect five of Sheger’s sub-cities (archived hereThe first phase, costing 4.5 billion birr (about US$78 million), is expected to last five years, but no further details have been revealed about the companies behind the project.
However, the designs for the Sheger Road released at the launch ceremony do not match the image circulating on social media.
Chinese highway
A Google reverse image search combined with keyword searches, this led to a similar photo in an article published by the Xiangyang City Publicity Department on July 17, 2019 (archived link).
The pictures subtitles says it shows an aerial view of the Xiangyang-Shiyan Expressway that connects the cities of Xiangyang and Gaoying in Hubei Province (archived link).
In combination with the names of the cities and the highway structure shown in the photo, AFP Fact Check has the corresponding satellite images to the sections on Google Maps.
A picture published In February 2014, a similar section of the expressway was shown on the website of the state-owned newspaper China Daily, with the caption stating that it connects Xiangyang (formerly Xiangfan) with Jingzhou, a southern city in Hubei (archived link).
The Oromia region Posted images of the concept drawings for the “Sheger urban highway mega-construction project” on Facebook (archived here), with a different design than the project in China.
AFP Fact Check has previously debunked similar claims about Ethiopian infrastructure projects here And here.
