Photo from Ethiopia peddled as AAP supporters on Delhi street protesting against Kejriwal’s arrest

An image depicting a huge crowd of people in yellow on a street is being widely shared on social media with users claiming that the image shows Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supporters in the streets of Delhi protesting against the arrest of Arvind Kejriwal.

X (formerly Twitter) user Sarita INC (@SaritaaInc) posted the above-mentioned viral image on March 31 with a caption in Hindi that can be translated as: “The entire roads of Delhi have become Kejriwal-filled. #IndiaWithKejriwal”. The tweet has received over 4.5 Lakh views and has been retweeted over 1,700 times. (Archive)

Raju Karpada (@RajubhaiKarpad1), who according to his X is bio the farmers’ wing president for AAP Gujarat, also shared the same image on March 31 with the following caption in Gujarati: “Lakhs of workers flocked in support of @ArvindKejriwal ji in Delhi today..!”. (Archive)

આજરોજ દિલ્હીમાં @ArvindKejriwal જી ના સપોર્ટમાં લાખો કાર્યકર્તાઓ ઉમટી પડ્યા..! pic.twitter.com/Nu1O9LUIa3

— Raju Karpada (@RajubhaiKarpad1) March 31, 2024

Several other users also shared the same image with the same claim that the image shows supporters of AAP on the streets of Delhi.

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Fact Check

We ran a reverse image search on the viral image and came across a website called MDG Achievement Fund. It belongs to a now-defunct organisation named The Millennium Development Goals Achievement Fund. The page on the website which carried the viral image is titled: “Haile Gebreselassie kicks off the Great Ethiopian Run under the slogan ‘We Can End Poverty by 2015′”.

Below is a comparison between the viral image and the above image.

Taking a cue from the above, we ran a keyword search that led us to a news report by CNN from 2017 titled “Ethiopia is the hot new place in Africa – here’s why”. The article carried the now-viral image with the following caption, “The annual Great Ethiopian Run in Addis Ababa is popular among tourists.”

Addis Ababa is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia and The Great Ethiopian Run is an annual 10-kilometre road running event that takes place around late November in the city. Hence, the image shows runners from the event in the streets of Addis Ababa.

Further, we found that the image in question was shared by the official X handle of Ethiopia’s ministry of foreign affairs on January 23, 2022, along with several other images from the same location of the running event. The caption said, “#GreatEthiopianRun The biggest running event in #Africa
Take part in it next time and have fun!”

#GreatEthiopianRun
The biggest running event in #Africa
Take part in it next time and have fun! pic.twitter.com/UsjRkshGpL

— The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of #Ethiopia 🇪🇹 (@mfaethiopia) January 23, 2022

Hence, from the above findings, it is clear that the viral image is neither recent nor from India. Therefore, the claim that the image is from Delhi of AAP supporters is false. The image is old and from Ethiopia.