Do these photos show ammunition “smuggled by Eritrea”, as Ethiopia's consul general in Dubai says?

What was claimed

On 13 October, Ethiopia’s consul general in Dubai, Zerihun Megersa Jima, posted on X that “Ethiopia’s patience in the face of Eritrea’s regime aggression is quite extraordinary”, and that Ethiopia “retains its full right to act in any manner of self defense”. He added A:

Note: Pictured below are clear evidences of ammunition captured in Tigray smuggled by Eritrea. Thousands of soldiers were also apprehended inside Tigray.

The post tags the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, and carries three photos A. A diplomat is presenting them to the UN as proof.

What the photos show

No ammunition is visible in any of them.

• One shows a sheet of paper fixed to a wooden crate B.
• One shows closed wooden crates on the back of a military truck.
• One shows boxed electronic equipment, unwrapped from cardboard and plastic C.

The crates may hold anything; the photos do not show what is inside them.

What the label says

The only thing in the photos that mentions Eritrea is the label B:

CONSIGNEE: TDANA PORT OF DESTINATION: Asmara, Eritrea C/NO.: 6 / 182 CONTRACT NO.: 01/10/25/TDANA

TDANA is the Tigray Development Association in North America, a registered US charity based in Washington E. On the same day as the consul’s post, TDANA issued a signed statement: it “has never used Asmara as a port to ship merchandise, as alleged”, its past shipments of “school materials, medicines, and hospital equipment” went through Djibouti and Addis Ababa, and it “was not involved in any way in the alleged shipments” D.

TDANA is a party to this, and its denial cannot be checked against shipping records. But the label is the post’s only evidence connecting the crates to Eritrea. What the label shows is a consignment addressed to a Tigrayan diaspora charity. It does not show that Eritrea smuggled anything, and it says nothing about ammunition.

We do not know where or when the photos were taken. They were circulating on X a week before the consul posted them, described by an anonymous account as “TPLF weapons smuggled through Eritrea” and as “confirmed”, without a source F. Ethiopia’s army showed foreign military attachés a cache of weapons on 13 October, according to Wazema Radio’s unnamed sources, which it said Eritrea and Sudan had supplied. Wazema’s report describes no markings, serial numbers or documents establishing where they came from G. We found no official Ethiopian publication of these crates, their contents or where they were found.

“Thousands of soldiers”

The post does not say whose soldiers were apprehended, where or when, and gives no source. We found no Ethiopian government or army figure for soldiers captured in Tigray this month. An earlier Ethiopian claim that “many Eritrean soldiers have been killed and captured” also came without names, numbers or evidence.

Our verdict

Misleading. The consul presented three photos to the UN Secretary-General as “clear evidences of ammunition … smuggled by Eritrea”. None of them shows ammunition. Their only link to Eritrea is a label addressed to a Tigrayan diaspora charity, which says it has never shipped through Asmara. The claim that thousands of soldiers were apprehended has no source at all. If Ethiopia publishes what the crates contained and where they were seized, we will review this fact check.