This piece also reports on the US warning to its citizens in Lebanon to leave amid the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.
A third post on Facebook says “Su-27 warplanes have started to enter Mogadishu… Ethiopian troops to invade Somalia have arrived”.
The Su-27, short for Sukhoi Su-27, is a Russian-made fighter jet used by the Ethiopian Air Force (ETAF).
“History has been made. “The Ethiopian army tricked the Somali army into demolishing Mogadishu,” said the narrator at the beginning of the video.
“Hassan Sheik Mohammed, who works as an Egyptian puppeteer, cannot believe what is happening. Although Somalia is determined to fight Ethiopia, the BBC reported that Ethiopia has deployed more than 20,000 soldiers in Somalia.”
Hassan Sheik Mohammed is the President of Somalia.
Regional disputes
Relations between Ethiopia and Somalia have been strained since Ethiopia signed a maritime agreement with the rebel Somaliland region in January of this year (archived here).
Egypt, which has long been at loggerheads with Ethiopia over the Ethiopian Renaissance Grand Dam on the Nile, sent defense equipment to Somalia in August shortly after the two countries signed a military accord (archived here).
A second round of Egyptian military aid has just arrived in Mogadishu, according to international media reports (archived here).
Complicating matters is the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), a peacekeeping force comprising more than 3,000 Ethiopian troops helping to fight al-Shabab terrorists. Formerly known as AMISON, this device is being phased out at the end of this year (archived here).
In its place in January 2025 is the African Union Support Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM), where Egypt has offered to donate troops.
The end of Ethiopia’s participation is up in the air – Somalia announced in late August 2024 that the Ethiopian military will not be part of AUSSOM unless it terminates the maritime agreement with Somaliland.
Despite rising tensions, claims in the space suggesting a regional conflict are misleading.
There is no proof
In each case, the claims in the videos’ descriptions were not supported by their actual content.
The first video only reports on 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 resources and military capacity building”, according to the article. by the Ethiopian News Agency.
This article does not specifically mention Chinese stealth jets.
Referring to the bilateral agreement, the narrator says “China has unexpectedly good news for the Ethiopian army. The Chinese and Ethiopian defense officials have announced that the two countries have agreed to strengthen their military cooperation. “
Nowhere does he speak of the “destruction” of Egypt but suggests that a close military relationship would be “ruin” for Egypt.
The second video contains different news, including a report about the “Somali protest[ing] against the deployment of Egyptian troops to Mogadishu”.
International media have reported on protests in various parts of Somalia against the Egyptian forces that may be deployed under AUSSOM (archived here).
However, this video is not about the Egyptian soldiers surrounded in Somalia.
Likewise, the third video does not describe the presence of Ethiopian planes entering Mogadishu.
Instead, it refers to similar peacekeeping operations and states that “3,000 Ethiopian troops were deployed in Somalia under the African Union Mission and more than 7,000 troops were deployed in various regions of Somalia as part of bilateral agreements before the deployment of Egyptian troops”.
An internet search could not find any credible news reports to support the misleading claims.
AFP Fact Check has previously debunked claims related to military conflict in the Horn of Africa here and here.