A second round of peace talks between the Ethiopian government and the rebel Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) held in Tanzania ended without an agreement on November 21, 2023. Following this, a post shared on Facebook claimed that a photo of a small plane surrounded by a crowd showed OLA leader Marroo Diriba returning from Tanzania to his base in Ethiopia. However, this is false: the photo was taken in eastern Indonesia in 2013.

The post, shared on November 26, 2023, contains a caption in both Afaan Oromoo and Amharic, Ethiopia’s major languages.

“Marroo has returned to his base safely,” reads the part in Afaan Oromoo.

The Amharic section translates to: “News: a commander of the Oromo Liberation Army who was in Tanzania for a peace deal has safely returned to his military base.”

OLA is a rebel force that has been fighting against the Ethiopian army in Oromia, the country’s largest region, since 2018.

The caption also includes a Telegram link that leads to a channel with various stories about OLA operations and the Oromo people.

The post contains a photo that shows a small aeroplane surrounded by onlookers on a bush airstrip with mountains in the distance.

It was published in a Facebook group with more than 48,000 members and shared more than 60 times. The account bears the name of OLA’s spokesperson, Odaa Tarbii and features the same profile picture that Odaa uses for his authentic account (archived here) on X (formerly Twitter).

Peace talks

The Ethiopian government and OLA...

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