Eskinder Nega is a former journalist who joined the Fano rebel group in 2023 and has since emerged as one of its leaders.
The post has been shared more than 300 times and viewed more than 226,000 times since it was published on Facebook on September 24, 2024.
It contains a 45-second clip with a text overlay in Amharic reading “Eskinder Nega said ‘the government is tolerant'”.
The video begins with Eskinder speaking to gathered fighters, paraphrasing the government’s call for them to renounce armed struggle: “’The government is tolerant… we could drop all charges against you. So return home quietly.”
“They say they could have imprisoned us for our crimes, but they chose to pardon us for God’s sake… As a result, they say we should return home peacefully,” he says.
After a big jump, Eskinder says, “Let’s do that.”
“We are heroes, there is no doubt about that. But our goal is not to brag about our heroism. That is not what we are fighting for,” he said.
“They say, ‘we have pardoned you… go back home peacefully.’ Let’s do that,” he continues.
Renewed fighting
Ethiopian federal forces have been fighting Fano rebels in the Amhara region – the country’s second most populous region – following the government’s decision to disarm regional security forces in April 2023.
The government recently deployed large numbers of troops to the region to suppress the ongoing uprising (archived here).
AFP reported on September 19, 2024, at least twenty people, mostly civilians, were killed in another clash between the army and a militia in the town of Debrak in the Amhara region (archived here).
The human rights organization Amnesty International also reported “mass arbitrary arrests” in Amhara on October 1, 2024, where authorities presented a list of hundreds of arrests, including some members of the academic community.
However, the video circulating online does not show Eskinder announcing that the rebels would give up their armed struggle and join the government.
Old video
AFP Fact Check used the video verification tool InVID-WeVerify to feed reverse image search on keyframes from the video.
The search results led us to a longer version of the film material (archived here) that was shared on Facebook almost six months ago, on March 19, 2024.
The original video is over 13 minutes long and begins with Eskinder telling the fighters: “We are all connected by an oath. The love of the Amhara people begins with this.”
38 seconds into the original video, Eskinder says: “The government asks us to give up the armed struggle, go back home and live a peaceful life. They say ‘the government is tolerant’”.
The text overlay reading “the government is tolerant” is taken from this statement.
“They’re saying, ‘There are criminal charges we filed against you…just so we could drop all the charges for God’s sake.’ …They say, ‘We have pardoned you, so go back home peacefully,’” he continues.
Eskinder refers to the Amhara regional government’s call for the Fano militia to do so denouncing the armed struggle and pursue their political objectives peacefully, taken several months before these images were recorded (archived here).
At 1’15”, he says: “Let’s say we do… I’m not saying this to you with emotion. We are heroes, there’s no doubt about that. But our goal is not to brag about our heroism. That is not what we are fighting for. Just because we lose our pride doesn’t mean we surrender to the government. The question is whether the issue we are fighting for has been resolved.”
“Suppose we accept their call and return home, let’s do that,” Eskinder said, adding: “But they (the government) do not want to recognize the just cause that forced us to enter into armed struggle,” added Eskinder to it.
The misleading post deliberately omits this paragraph: “Suppose we accept their call and return home, let’s do that” and instead makes it appear as if Eskinder is declaring that the rebels have given up the armed struggle.
Eskinder concludes at 10’52”: “We must effectively reverse the genocide committed against us, a genocide that is being perpetuated against us today and could be perpetrated against us tomorrow… When the ongoing genocide is effectively reversed, we put an end to the genocide. armed struggle.”
Eskinder made no mention of “joining the government” in the original video or in the misleading clip, as claimed in the post.
AFP Fact Check has debunked several claims related to the Ethiopian conflict, including here, here And here.