On September 26, 2026 a Facebook page with more than 440,000 followers shared a video asserting that Commander of TPLF Army 33 General Woldegiorgis Teklay (Sherifo) is calling for the surrender of TDF members. Conversely, Hornfrequency used open-source techniques to check the veracity of the claim and proved that the video is AI-generated, and rendered it as false/AI-generated.
Screenshot shows a deepfake video of General Woldegiorgis sharing a message of surrender
After the restart of the war in the northern part of Ethiopia a major offensive and defensive attack was seen by both the federal government and the armed forces allying against the federal government.
Ethiopian government troops and allied forces report capturing a key town in the conflict torn northern Tigray region following days of multi-front clashes with rebel combatants.
According to posts on social media, the ENDF took control of woredas in Alamata alongside the Tigray Peace forces (TPF). Heavy fighting has escalated across northern Ethiopia over the past week as renewed clashes between the Federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and its allies unravel the fragile Pretoria peace accord signed in November 2022.
The earlier stage of the war, spanning 2020 to 2022, left hundreds of thousands dead and forced millions from their homes.
General Woldegiorgis Teklay, widely recognized by his name “Sherifo,” is a prominent senior military commander within the Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) and the central military command structure of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). Renowned for his operational leadership on the ground, he serves as the Commander of Army 33 and has been positioned as a deputy front commander during recent strategic reorganizations of the region’s armed forces.
Recently, General Weldegiorgis Teklay (Sherifo), commander of the TPLF’s Army 33, provided clarification to BBC Tigrinya regarding the fighting that broke out on the Afar front. In his statement, he denied attacking the Afar region, stating, “We attacked the Hara Meret militants, not the Afar region.”
Screenshot shows an interview of General woldegiorgis Teklay with BBC Tigrigna
Hornfrequency conducted a further investigation on the video using AI-detection tools and gets a result of 99.9% AI-generated video and 98.6% of AI-generated speech.
We also found the original image that was used to generate the AI-video previously shared on June 26, 2024.
In spite of the current war happening against the federal government, hornfrequency assessed the video and labeled it as false/AI-generated.
