AFP ย
A Facebook post alleging that the US Department of Defense had announced an imminent airstrike on Ethiopia has been shared hundreds of times in the East African country since early March 2021. The post cites The Washington Post, an American newspaper, as its source and also claims that the strike order came from the Oval Office. This is false; the US Department of Defense has made no such announcement. Furthermore, The Washington Post denied being the source of these claims.ย
โThe US ministry of defense announced in a statement released by the Presidentโs office that it will carry out an airstrike in Ethiopiaย (sic),โ an excerpt of theย Facebookย postโsย caption reads in Oromo. It has racked up more than 700 shares since March 7, 2021.
The page that published the post, called โFinfinne Media Networkโ, hasย more than 21,000 followers. According toย page transparencyย information provided by Facebook, it was created in November 2020.
The account has a history of promoting pro-Oromo content. The Oromos are Ethiopiaโs largest ethnic group, and tensions with the federal government have been high since the arrest of their political leader, Jawar Mohammed, who has beenย in prisonย since July 2020.ย 
Screenshot of the false post, taken on March 23, 2021
The post further claims that the US presidentโs office issued a statement announcing the airstrike against Ethiopia and that the military operation will be led by the US air force. It also claims that this information came from The Washington Post.ย
US Department of Defense refutes claims
A search on the website of the US Department of Defense did not yield any results concerning a pending airstrike in Ethiopia.
The departmentโs latest press release regarding airstrikes, issued on February 25, 2021, discussed US military forces executing โdefensive precision strikesโ on infrastructure used by Iranian-backed militia in Syria.ย
Contacted by email, a US Department of Defense spokesman refuted the claim that they had issued a statement regarding an airstrike on Ethiopia.ย
โThere has been no such U.S. Department of Defense announcementโ, he told AFP Fact Check on March 24, 2021.ย
Washington Post is not the source
The Facebook post credits The Washington Post as the source for the news about airstrikes in Ethiopia. This is false.
Contacted by AFP Fact Check, The Washington Post denied being the source of the allegations.
โThe Washington Post did not publish any such claim,โ Azhar AlFadl Miranda, a senior publicist at the news organization, told AFP.
Furthermore, aย searchย on The Washington Postโs website with the keywords โEthiopiaโ and โairstrikeโย revealed 65 results, but none of these articles discussed a USย military operation in Ethiopia.ย
Unrelated image
The image featured in the false post is several months old and not related to airstrikes in Ethiopia.
The screen in the background of the image offers a clue that it is old. The text says โOffice of the President Electโ, implying that the event predates Bidenโs inauguration as theย 46th presidentย of the United States on January 20, 2021.
By running aย reverse image searchย usingย TinEye, AFP Fact Check found the original footage from which the image was taken. It was filmed when US President Joe Biden introduced Dr. Miguel Cardona as his nominee for education secretary on December 23, 2020. In thisย YouTube video,ย Cardona is seen making a speech with Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris sitting behind him.
Biden tweeted the imageย on December 24,
Cardona was sworn in as theย 12th education secretaryย on March 2, 2021.
