Doctored clip gives false impression Ethiopian leader asked citizens to pay off country's debt
The text accompanying the video post in Amharic reads: 'Dear Ethiopians, please be ready to contribute cash for foreign debt repayment.'
Image
Screenshot of the altered post, taken on June 5, 2025
'Guys make ready 71,000 each,' adds the text overlay on the video. The post was published on May 29, 2025, and has been shared more than 370 times.
It contains a clip more than a minute long in which Abiy is seen speaking at a gathering.
'Dear Ethiopians living in our country and Ethiopian citizens living in different foreign countries,' Abiy appears to say.
'We have reached a consensus that every Ethiopian should contribute to the repayment of Ethiopia's foreign debt.'
He continues: 'Therefore, every Ethiopian and everyone who holds Ethiopian citizenship must contribute 71,000 Ethiopian Birr or 571 dollars. All Ethiopians need to support us to achieve our goals actively.'
Footage of a protest follows and then the video switches back to what appears to be Abiy's speech.
'Concern for Ethiopia cannot be expressed through talks alone. Neither can media campaigns. Love for Ethiopia is best expressed through action.'
Abiy purportedly adds: 'If you love Ethiopia and you care about Ethiopia, its foreign debt should be repaid immediately.'
Some users left angry comments.
'Didn't you give Sudan 60 million dollars as a loan last time? It would have been better if you had paid part of the debt,' wrote one.
'Better sell the new extravagant palace and pay back the debt,' said another.
In November 2024, Ethiopia granted South Sudan a loan of more than $738 million (archived here). Abiy has also initiated a multi-billion-dollar project for building a new palace in Addis Ababa (archived here).
The posts were also shared here and here on Facebook.
Ethiopia's debt
In July 2024, Ethiopia launched an economic reform programme by moving to market-determined exchange rates and introducing a new interest-based monetary policy (archived here).
As a result, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved $3.4 billion in aid.
The country is suffering from high foreign debt, with about $30 billion on the books this year. It has been negotiating with its creditors since 2021 to have part of the debt repayments cancelled (archived here).
In March 2025, the country reached an agreement in principle with its creditors to restructure part of its debt totalling $8.4 billion.
However, Abyi's speech, in which he allegedly calls on his fellow citizens to contribute cash to repay the foreign debt, was created by artificial intelligence (AI).
Forensics centre launching
AFP Fact Check used the video verification tool InVID-WeVerify to conduct reverse image searches on keyframes from the video.
The results revealed that a longer video was published on the official YouTube channel of Gazette Plus, part of the Ethiopian News Agency (ENA), on November 16, 2024 (archived here).
This footage, more than 16 minutes long, shows a news report on the launch of a new Ethiopian federal police forensics centre of excellence.
'The Federal Police has been equipped with modern technologies as part of the ongoing reform,' reads the video's caption in Amharic.
The video begins with a news anchor discussing the reform of the federal police's security and intelligence, followed by a marching band performing in front of Abiy.
At 1'20', Abiy begins speaking in Amharic and says: 'The Federal Police Forensic Centre of Excellence that we are opening today is the result of the reforms we have carried out in the last five years.'
He adds: 'We have worked tirelessly to modernise our country's law enforcement agencies, organise them in terms of knowledge, human resources and technological advancement and realise the sustainability of our great country.'
Abiy says that the forensic centre is equipped with facilities that enable it to conduct DNA examinations and other investigations.
At no point does Abiy call on Ethiopians to contribute money to repay foreign debts. He does not address Ethiopia's debt at all.
Artificially-generated speech
The false Facebook post used two segments from Abiy's original speech – at 5'03'-5'28' and 11'40'-11'51' – and replaced them with artificially created audio.
While the words are spoken in Amharic, the accent is irregular, as are the pronunciations of some words. For example, 'Ethiopia' and 'Ethiopian' are pronounced as 'Utubia' and 'Utubian'.
There are also clear discrepancies between the words and Abiy's lip movements. For example, Abiy's mouth barely moves when he says '..every Ethiopian and everyone who holds Ethiopian citizenship..'.
Image
Screenshots of the original video (left) and the altered version. Taken on June 5, 2025
AFP Fact Check also ran the audio through an audio deepfake detector called DeepfakeTotal.
Image
Screenshot of the results generated by DeepfakeTotal. Taken on June 9, 2025
The results showed a more than 85 percent probability that the audio was artificially created.
AFP Fact Check has previously debunked AI-generated videos on a range of topics in Ethiopia, such as here, here and here.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
AFP
11 hours ago
- AFP
Video shows a Russian pilgrimage, not Israelis evacuating over Iran strikes
Israel's attack on Iran on June 13, 2025, triggered retaliatory measures by Iran and turned the decades-long enmity between the two into a rapidly-spiralling military conflict. A video compilation circulating on Facebook in Ethiopia claims to show Israelis fleeing cities en masse following a warning from Iran. However, this is false: the video shows footage from the Velikoretsky religious pilgrimage in Russia, which took place earlier this month, as well as people setting off en masse to collect a medicinal fungus on a mountainside in Nepal. The text accompanying the video post in Amharic reads: 'Israelis leave cities due to Iran's warning to evacuate their cities.' Image Screenshot of the false post, taken on June 19, 2025 'Happy trip,' reads the English text overlay, accompanied by an emoji of the Israeli flag. The 29-second video is composed of three clips divided into two sections. In the top half of the screen, hundreds of people are seen walking in a hilly, dry landscape. In the bottom half of the screen, a crowd of people are shown walking down a street, all headed in the same direction and most of them wearing large backpacks. Then, a crowd is seen from above crossing a bridge. The video was published on June 17, 2025, and has been shared more than 190 times since. A similar post was also posted here on Facebook and shared more than 5,000 times. Israel-Iran conflict After decades of bad blood and a long shadow war, Israel launched a massive bombing campaign on 13 June 2025, to which Iran responded with a barrage of missiles and drones. AFP reported that as of June 19, 2025, more than 200 Iranians and Israelis were killed in the missile attacks on both sides, with hundreds more wounded (archived here). A hospital in southern Israel was hit when Iran fired a barrage of missiles, while the Israeli army said it had hit an "inactive nuclear reactor" in Arak, Iran. International media also reported that on June 15, 2025, Iranian forces warned Israelis to leave their country in the face of increasing rocket attacks (archived here). However, the video does not show Israelis fleeing their cities. Velikoretsky pilgrimage AFP Fact Check used the video verification tool InVID-WeVerify to conduct reverse image searches on keyframes from the video. For the footage of the crowd walking in the street and across a bridge, the search results include an X post from June 6, 2025 (archived here). Важное событие, о котором МОЛЧАТ практически все СМИ 22 тысячи православных русских людей идут Великорецким крестным ходом. Идут во славу Христа, Богородицы и Николая Угодника 22 тыс человек оставили дела и работу, чтобы несколько дней молиться Господу о прощении грехов — olga_1205 (@k_ollga) June 6, 2025 Text in Russian accompanying the video indicates that it shows thousands of Russians who took part in the Velikoretsky religious pilgrimage earlier this month. The Velikoretsky is a Russian Orthodox procession that takes place in early June every year, covering 110 miles (177 kilometres) and passing through 12 locations in the Kirov region (archived here). The official website for the city of Kirov featured a story about the pilgrimage held earlier this month on June 3, 2025, which includes a picture corresponding to the footage (archived here). Image Screenshots of the image from Kirov's website (left) and the false post, taken on June 18, 2025 Meanwhile, search results for the clip of people walking in the hills established that it was originally posted on Telegram on June 2, 2025, more than a week before the start of the Israeli-Iranian conflict. The clip shows a crowd of people in search of a medical fungus known as Yarsagumba around Mount Dolpa in western Nepal. Every year, people head to the highlands of Dolpa to harvest Yarsagumba, a rare and highly valued medicinal fungus (archived here). Neither of the three clips is related to Israel or the ongoing conflict with Iran.
AFP
11 hours ago
- AFP
AI image does not show French spy caught in Burkina Faso
'French spy has been captured by captain Ibrahim Traoré, president of Burkina Faso,' reads the caption accompanying a TikTok video posted on May 2, 2025. The post was shared more than 2,400 times. Image Screenshot of the false TikTok post, taken June 16, 2025 The video includes a static image that appears to show Burkina Faso's president standing next to a man wearing an army uniform, who has blood on his face and is holding his hands in the air. Several TikTok users have claimed that the man in the image is a French spy who was caught posing as a journalist by the name of Julien Moreau (seen here and here). This comes several months after four French nationals who had been held in Burkina Faso over espionage accusations were freed following more than a year of detention (archived here). The group was arrested in the capital, Ouagadougou, on December 1, 2023, and presented by the authorities as intelligence agents working for France's Directorate-General for External Security (archived here). They were released in December 2024, with French authorities thanking Morocco for mediation in the case. However, the claim that this image shows a captured French spy is false. AI-generated image A close look at the picture reveals several flaws commonly found in AI-generated images. For example, the writing on the man's army uniform is gibberish; it's not inscribed in French or any real language. Additionally, Traore's hands appear deformed. Image Screenshot of the AI-generated image from TikTok, with visual clues highlighted A reverse image search of the image led to the earliest occurrence of the claim we could find online: a YouTube video posted on May 1, 2025, seen here. In the caption, after a lengthy tale about a French man posing as a journalist who is then publicly confronted by Traore for being a spy, there is a disclaimer. 'This video is a work of fiction inspired by the life of Ibrahim Traoré,' the caption reads. 'The situations and dialogues depicted are entirely fictional.' Subsequent posts circulating on YouTube and TikTok do not contain any such disclaimers, leading users to believe the image and story is real. AFP Fact Check did not find any credible reports by international media on any French journalist being accused of espionage in Burkina Faso in May 2025. Several AI detection tools also considered the image to be AI-generated. Posts shared on social media with a similar claim that a French woman was caught spying in Burkina Faso were previously debunked by Euronews (archived here).
Euronews
a day ago
- Euronews
IMF chief: European lifestyle is at risk if productivity isn't boosted
Europe needs to boost its growth in the face of global headwinds or risk losing its way of life, said the head of the International Monetary Fund Kristalina Georgieva on Wednesday. 'I don't want Europe to become the United States of America, but I want the productivity and functionality of Europe to go up,' she told Euronews. 'In Europe we enjoy being a lifestyle superpower. Unless we become more productive we may lose this advantage,' she added. Georgieva was speaking ahead of the publication of a new IMF statement on Thursday, which offers economic suggestions to eurozone nations. One key message is that Europe must speed up progress on the single market, which ensures the free movement of goods, services, capital and people between single market nations. 'There are no tariffs within Europe, but it doesn't mean there are no barriers in Europe, regulatory and otherwise,' Georgieva told Euronews. The IMF estimates that barriers to free movement in the single market are equivalent to a 44% tariff on goods and a 110% tariff on services. Georgieva noted that in the US, what is produced in one state is split 30-70, meaning 30% is consumed in that state and 70% is sent to other states. In Europe, on the other hand, 70% of production is consumed domestically while 30% is sent abroad. This is a set-up that limits growth by keeping markets smaller and less competitive. 'If Europe completes the single market, over 10 years, it would boost GDP by 3%,' said Georgieva. Means to advance progress on this front include lowering regulatory fragmentation, supporting labour mobility, facilitating cross-border banking mergers, integrating the energy market, and making progress on the capital markets union (CMU) — said the IMF. The CMU aims to allow investment and savings to flow seamlessly across member states. This would make it easier for businesses in one EU state to source funding from another EU state, supporting firms to grow and create jobs. In terms of deepening capital markets, the IMF's statement added that the EU should 'increase institutional investors' familitary with venture capital as an asset class and address remaining undue restrictions on their ability to invest in it'. Looking ahead, the IMF expects eurozone growth at a moderate 0.8% in 2025, picking up to 1.2% in 2026. Trade and geopolitical tensions are expected to dampen sentiment and weigh on investment and consumption. With regards to interest rates, the IMF argued that 'a monetary policy stance close to neutral is justified' as headline inflation nears the ECB's 2% target. When balancing spending pressures with fiscal sustainability, the IMF recommended that countries with strong public finances support countries with less room for manoeuvre. 'It is crucial that care be taken in implementing the EU fiscal rules to ensure that countries with low fiscal risks that intend to increase spending to boost potential growth and enhance resilience should not be constrained from doing so by the rules,' said Thursday's statement. As widely anticipated, the Bank of England (BoE) decided to keep its benchmark rate at a 2-year low of 4.25% on Thursday. This comes as fears grow that the conflict between Israel and Iran will escalate and that US tariffs will further fuel inflation. Six out of the nine-member panel of the monetary policy committee voted to hold, while three of them saw fit to cut. The bank lowered its rate to 4.25% in May, the fourth cut after an aggressive tightening period in 2022-2023. More cuts are still expected in the coming months by the market. The central bank's benchmark interest rate determines how banks change their rates on savings and loans. UK inflation, the primary figure driving the monetary policy committee's decisions, came in at 3.4% on Wednesday, far above the BoE's 2% target. Price increases, however, slowed slightly compared to the annual price change measured in April, which stood at 3.5%. The prevailing view at the bank was that inflation would remain elevated over the coming months but start to slow towards next year. But an uptick in oil prices, due to the current geopolitical crisis between Israel and Iran, could change this, as energy prices translate into the costs of producing and transporting all other goods. 'The risk to energy prices has clearly intensified and moved up the agenda given developments in the Middle East,' Sandra Horsfield, an economist for Investec, told AP. Uncertainty over the level of tariffs US President Donald Trump will impose around the world is also clouding the outlook for prices across the globe. 'We are still awaiting the full impact of Donald Trump's tariffs to show up in the prices of goods. We are approaching the end of the 90-day pause on reciprocal tariffs, and what happens from there is really anyone's guess,' Lindsay James, investment strategist at Quilter said. She added that even with the US-UK trade deal, the raft of tariffs on other nations would likely be felt in some form in the UK too. This will especially be the case if the UK's biggest trading partner Europe leaves the table with no agreement. While setting their focus on inflationary risks, the BoE also need to consider that growth in the UK economy is slow and could benefit from lower interest rates. In April, economic output sank by 0.3%, due to falling exports to the US and higher costs for businesses, including a tax raise. "The expectation is the UK economy will stagnate again in the second half, making the need for rate cuts more prominent," James said. "But with risks on the global stage not only uncertain but also substantial, the mantra of rates being 'higher for longer' will continue.'
