The clip also reports on a US warning to its citizens in Lebanon to leave amid fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
A third Facebook post claims that “Su-27 fighter jets have invaded Mogadishu… Ethiopian forces expected to overrun Somalia have arrived.”
The Su-27, short for Sukhoi Su-27, is a Russian-made fighter aircraft used by the Ethiopian Air Force (ETAF).
“History has been made. Ethiopian soldiers tricked Somali forces and took down Mogadishu,” the narrator says at the beginning of the video.
“Hassan Sheik Mohammed, who serves as Egypt’s puppet, cannot believe what is happening. Although Somalia moved to engage in military confrontation with Ethiopia, the BBC reported that Ethiopia has deployed more than 20,000 troops in Somalia.
Hassan Sheik Mohammed is the President of Somalia.
Regional tensions
Relations between Ethiopia and Somalia have deteriorated since Ethiopia signed a maritime agreement with the breakaway region of Somaliland in January this year (archived here).
Egypt, long at odds with Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Nile, sent defense equipment to Somalia in August, shortly after the two countries signed a military pact (archived here).
According to international media reports (archived here), a second round of Egyptian military aid recently arrived in Mogadishu.
Complicating matters is the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), a peacekeeping force that includes more than 3,000 Ethiopian soldiers helping in the fight against al-Shabab militants. The mission, formerly known as AMISON, ends at the end of this year (archived here).
This will be replaced in January 2025 by the African Union Support Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM), to which Egypt has offered to contribute troops.
The fate of Ethiopia’s participation is up in the air: Somalia announced in late August 2024 that Ethiopian forces would not be part of AUSSOM unless it terminates the maritime deal with Somaliland.
Despite the rising tensions, claims in the reports suggesting that a regional conflict was underway are misleading.
No evidence
In both cases, the claims made in the videos’ descriptions were not supported by their actual content.
The first video exclusively reports on the renewed military cooperation between Ethiopia and China.
Like Egypt and Somalia, the two countries signed an agreement on September 15, 2024 (archived here) to cooperate in the areas of “Fifth Generation Warfare (5GW), technology transfer, military equipment and military capacity building,” according to an article by the Ethiopian news agency.
The article does not specifically mention Chinese stealth jets.
Referring to the bilateral agreement, the narrator says that “China has unexpectedly good news for the Ethiopian military. Chinese and Ethiopian defense commanders announced that the two countries have agreed to strengthen their military cooperation.”
At no point does he mention the “destruction” of Egypt, but suggests that closer military ties would be “devastating” for Egypt.
The second video contains various news items, including a report on ‘Somali protest[ing] against the deployment of Egyptian troops in Mogadishu.”
International media have reported on protests in various parts of Somalia against Egyptian troops possibly deployed under the auspices of AUSSOM (archived here).
However, the video makes no mention of the encirclement of Egyptian forces in Somalia.
Likewise, the third video does not describe the presence of Ethiopian fighter jets entering Mogadishu.
Instead, it refers to the same peacekeeping missions and states that “3,000 Ethiopian soldiers were deployed in Somalia under the African Union mission and over 7,000 soldiers were deployed in various regions of Somalia as part of bilateral agreements before the deployment of Egyptian forces” .
Online searches failed to find any credible news reports supporting the misleading claims.
AFP Fact Check has previously debunked claims regarding military tensions in the Horn of Africa here and here.
