Were security forces present at the National Dialogue venue?

The Ethiopian National Dialogue Commission (ENDC) has continued to receive attention on social media, with various unverified and misleading claims keep circulating. These claims followed different issues raised during the National Dialogue process, including disputes over the topic grouping rules, delegate walkouts, ID card issues, debates over Addis Ababa's future status, and proposed changes to the country's flag.

Among these, a Facebook page named Getachew Shiferaw which has over 290K followers, shared a post claiming that, while Ethiopia is undergoing the national dialogue process, the Dialogue Commission deployed police to harass participants under the guise of "stabilization." The post also claimed that all the police officers were from the Oromo ethnic group. The post maker noted that the accompanying photo was not current, and several commenters also pointed out the same issue. At the time of review, the post had gained more than 3K likes, 654 comments, and 318 shares.

Screenshot of a Facebook post by Getachew Shiferaw on August 8, 2026

The CARD Fact-Checking Team investigated the image using Google Reverse Image Search and Google Lens and found that it is an old photo taken by a journalist on January 28, 2015. The original photo was published by Tadias Magazine with the title "Police Brutally Attack Peaceful Protesters in Addis Ababa Ahead of National Election." The publisher also mentioned at the end of the post that the picture was not taken yesterday. However, social media users could still be misled if they only read the title and look at the photo, as they may think the image shows security forces attacking participants in the current National Dialogue.

The CARD Fact-Checking Team contacted the Commission to verify the claim and asked whether security forces had entered the National Dialogue process. The Commission responded that no security forces had entered or been involved in the dialogue process.