A post shared on Facebook in Ethiopia claims that Russian channel RT broadcast an alleged plot by World Health Organization (WHO) Director Tedros Adhanom to destabilise his home country of Ethiopia with the help of the West. But the claim is false: AFP Fact Check found no such report, and RT said it never published anything on any of its news platforms in recent weeks claiming that Tedros was trying to undermine Ethiopia. The Russian embassy in Ethiopia also dismissed the claim.

The post was published on Facebook on April 9, 2022, and has since been shared 60 times.

Written in Afaan Oromoo, the translated post partly reads: “According to the Russian government, Tedros is involved in a mission to destroy Ethiopia … working with western countries to destabilise his motherland Ethiopia … conspiring with diplomats and other leading international figures to influence the Ethiopian government. The Russian government, therefore, will not recognise influential people like Tedros who pretend to work in international organisations but are conspiring to destroy other countries.”

The post credits RT, a state-funded Russian news channel that broadcasts in several languages.

Ethiopia and Tedros

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