Old video shows Eritrean troops returning from Ethiopia instead of heading for war
Rising military tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea’s neighbors have put the Horn of Africa on the edge. A Facebook video about the soldiers’ truck has been shared, claiming that the video shows Eritrean troops recently crossing Ethiopia. But this is wrong: the footage is over two years old, showing Eritrean forces returning home after completing military operations in Ethiopia during the Tigray War in November 2022.
The post was published on Afaan Oromoo on March 23, 2025 and opened with “breaking news.”
Screenshot of fake posts, taken on March 26, 2025
The Post claimed: “At present, the Eritrean army has crossed the Ethiopian border and is advancing towards Tigray. The Eritrean army has reached an agreement with the TDF and Fano forces and is heading to Tigray to fight the Ethiopian Federal Army.”
Tigray is the northern region bordering Ethiopia and Eritrea. The TDF refers to the Tigray Defence Force, a paramilitary organization that fought Ethiopia during the two-year Tigray War that ended in November 2022 after the peace agreement signed by Pretoria. Fano is a paramilitary organization in the Amhara region and has been fighting Ethiopian troops since July 2023.
The post contains a minute-long video showing soldiers waving to them through the roadside.
Similar posts are shared here and here.
Area tension
Tensions between hostile factions within the TDF threaten Tigray’s fragile peace agreement and raise the prospect of a new war between Ethiopia and Eritrea (archived here and here).
In this case, the Post claimed that Eritrean troops crossed the border and joined forces with TDF and Fano to fight Ethiopia.
Although the Eritrean army was an ally of Abi during the Tigray War, relations between the two countries deteriorated (archived here).
According to a report on March 25, 2025, Eritrea called on young people to enlist, while Ethiopia deployed troops in the border areas (archived here).
However, the video did not show Eritrean troops crossing the Ethiopian border in March 2025.
Army Return
AFP fact-check uses video verification tool Invid-weverify to perform reverse image searches from the lens on the keyframe.
The results show that the footage was posted on Facebook many years ago on January 25, 2023. It was initially over three minutes (reserved here).
The video has a title on Tigrigna, which is used in the Tigray region of Eritrea and Ethiopia. It translates to: “After the successful return of peacekeeping operations, they proudly welcome the heroes of the Eritrea Defence Force.”
The same video was also shared on Facebook on the same date (archived here).
At the time, several international media (here, here and here) reported on the withdrawal from Ethiopia after Pretoria signed a peace agreement that ended Tigray War (archived here, here and here).
The clips in the fake post correspond to a portion of the original video of 2’25” to 3’25”.
Comparison of vehicles in the video shows that they carry the Eritrea flag and the same banner in their Amharic reading: “The Ethiopian-Eritrea joint army is the foundation of African peace, and the unification of Ethiopia and Eritrea will be strengthened.”
This refers to the Eritrea alliance with the Ethiopian government during the Tiguele War.
Screenshot of original 2023 footage showing banners of vehicles describing peaceful relations between Ethiopia and Eritrea
Despite growing tensions, there are no credible reports of recent Eritrean forces crossing the Ethiopian border.
