Fake Quote Attributed to Abiy Ahmed

Dina Faisal

Politics

21st June 2021

Prime Minister debunked the circulating (Getty).

The Claim

In a recorded session just before Ethiopia’s elections, Abiy Ahmed said he would rather die than hand over power.

News posted on

Emerging story

News is circulating on social media, and some news websites claim Ethiopian president Abiy Ahmed said, “I would rather die than hand over power to them.” It is alleged that the source of the claim is leaked audio from a high-level meeting of the ruling party, which was first shared by US-based Kello Media, which focuses on East Africa, mainly Ethiopian news. The first circulation began almost three weeks ago, just ahead of the Ethiopian elections, which started today.

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Misbar’s Analysis

MENA: The Misbar investigation found the claim to be fake. Upon investigation, it was found that the office of Prime Minister Abiy refuted claims to the accusation on their official Twitter account. They confirmed that the leaked audio is fake. They urged citizens to be more vigilant about this type of misinformation ahead of the country’s elections.

The Office of the Prime Minister wishes to affirm that supposed leaked audio of Prime Minister @AbiyAhmedAli during Prosperity Party meeting of last week is a FAKE audio compilation which has been put together by drawing on different unrelated remarks made by the PM. 1/2
— Office of the Prime Minister - Ethiopia (@PMEthiopia) May 31, 2021