Sunday September 29, 2024
These posts on Facebook with images claiming to show weapons recovered by Somalia’s Puntland regional state after militias intercepted them in September 2024 are PARTLY FALSE.
The posts, with images of various weapons, claim that the arsenal was en route to the Puntland administration.
The first Somali post translates to: “BREAKING: Puntland forces have taken over truckloads of weapons and ammunition heading to the Puntland administration. A fighting between Ethiopia’s Liyu police escorting the weapons and Somali militia forces which occurred in the Bookh district of the Somali regional state in Ethiopia yesterday has stopped today.
“The armed militiamen reportedly attempted to rob the weapons, causing several clashes. The security forces of the Puntland Presidency have now taken the trucks carrying the weapons, and it is worth noting that the Puntland administration has not yet claimed that the weapons were heading to them.”
On 20 September 2024, local media reported clashes in Ethiopia’s Somali region, specifically in the Bookh District, between forces escorting weapons and an armed militia attempting to seize them, as seen, here here, here, here, and here.
Somalia accused Ethiopia of providing ‘unauthorised’ arms shipments to the Puntland state.
But are the images authentic?
A Google reverse image search of the photo in the first post established that it is from August 2024.
The image appeared in a 5 August 2024 article titled “Puntland forces seize weapons, arrest Al-Shabaab and ISIS suspects in Bosaso.”
The second post contains three images: one showing weapons and two featuring Somali Regional State President Mustafa Cagjar and Puntland President Said Deni.
The Somali text accompanying the images translates to: “Update: Puntland has safely taken over two truckloads of weapons from Ethiopia after the weapons were almost seized by the people of Bookh District in the Somali region last night. It has been confirmed that two Liyu police forces in the Somali region who were escorting the weapons died and another was injured after the people of Bookh district tried to steal the weapons.
“As the residents confirmed to me that the Puntland forces who reached the area reinforced the Liyu police forces and finally succeeded in saving the weapons. It is not confirmed the number of the militia members who wanted to rob the weapons killed, but it is believed that there are injuries and deaths.”
A reverse image search revealed that the first image dates back to 2016 and depicts weapons captured in the Lower Shabelle region of southern Somalia. It originally appeared in a 10 March 2019 article titled, “Somali federal government forces captured weapons from Al-Shabaab.”
The second image shows Somali Regional State President Cagjar, in Ethiopia, chairing a meeting with UN agencies on 21 March 2022.
A reverse image search on the third image identified Puntland President Said Deni participating in the National Electoral Consultative Conference in Mogadishu on 22 May 2021 alongside the prime minister, presidents of federal member states, and the mayor of Benadir Regional Administration.
The third post falsely claimed that the image is of “arms and weapons transferred by Ethiopia to Puntland State were seized at the Somalia-Ethiopia border.” However, reverse searches using TinEye and Yandex confirm that the image in question shows weapons captured by Australian Navy forces off the coast of Oman in 2016.
The image appeared in a 7 March 2016 Sky News article titled “Somalia-Bound Weapons Cache Worth $2m Seized.”
The Times & The Sunday Times also used the image in an article on the same incident.
PesaCheck has examined posts on Facebook with images claiming to show weapons recovered by Somalia’s Puntland regional state after militias intercepted them in September 2024 and finds them to be PARTLY FALSE.
This fact-check was written by PesaCheck Fact-Checker Hassan Istiila and edited by PesaCheck senior copy editor Mary Mutisya and chief copy editor Stephen Ndegwa.
The article was approved for publication by PesaCheck’s managing editor Doreen Wainainah.