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 over 226,000 times since it was published on Facebook on September 24, 2024.
It contains a 45-second clip with an Amharic-language text overlay reading “Eskinder Nega said ‘the government is tolerant’”.
The video begins with Eskinder speaking to gathered fighters and paraphrasing the government’s call on them to renounce armed struggle: “‘The government is tolerant… we could drop all the charges against you. So return to your home peacefully’”.
“They say they could imprison 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 significant jump, Eskinder says, “Let us do that”.
“We are heroes, no question 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 pardoned you… go back home peacefully’. Let us do that,” he continues.
Renewed fighting
Ethiopian federal troops have been fighting Fano rebels in the Amhara region – the country’s second most populous region – following the government’s decision to disarm the regional security forces in April 2023.
The government recently deployed a large number of troops to the region to quell the ongoing insurgency (archived here).
AFP reported on September 19, 2024 that at least 20 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 organisation Amnesty International also reported “mass arbitrary arrests” in Amhara on October 1, 2024, where the 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 conduct reverse image searches on keyframes from the video.
The search results led us to a longer version of the footage (archived here) that was shared on Facebook nearly six months ago, on March 19, 2024.
The original video is more than 13 minutes long and it begins with Eskinder saying to the fighters: “We are all bound together by an oath. The love of the Amhara people begins with this”.
At 38 seconds into the original video, Eskinder says: “The government is asking us to give up the armed struggle, go back home and live a peaceful life. They say ‘the government is tolerant’”.
The text overlay that reads “the government is tolerant” is taken from this statement.
“They are saying ‘there are criminal charges that we initiated against you…so we could drop all the crime charges for God’s sake’. …They say ‘We have pardoned you, so go back home peacefully,‘” he continues.
Eskinder is referring to the Amhara regional government’s call for the Fano militia to denounce armed struggle and pursue their political objectives peacefully, which was made several months before this footage was recorded (archived here).
At 1’15”, he says: “Let us say we do that…I am not saying this to you with emotion. We are heroes, there is no question about that. But our goal is not to brag about our heroism. That is not what we are fighting for. It is not because we lose pride that we surrender to the government. Whether the cause we are fighting for has been resolved is the question.”
“Suppose we accept their call and return home, let us do that,” says Eskinder adding “But they [the government] do not want to recognize the just cause that forced us to take up armed struggle,” Eskinder added.
The misleading post deliberately omits this section: “Suppose we accept their call and return home, let us do that” and instead makes it seem as if Eskinder declares that the rebels have given up the armed struggle.
Eskinder concludes at 10’52”: “We should effectively reverse the genocide that has been committed against us, a genocide that is perpetuated against us today and might be committed against us tomorrow…When the ongoing genocide is effectively reversed, we will end the armed struggle.”
Eskinder did not mention “joining the government” in either the original video or the misleading clip, as claimed by the post.
AFP Fact Check has debunked multiple claims linked to the Ethiopian conflict, including here, here and here.
