Ethiopia’s Orthodox Church faced a crisis in 2023 when a group of rebel archbishops created a dissident synod. The rift was eventually resolved but disinformation linked to the incident continues to circulate online. In one recent example, the church’s general secretary was accused of fleeing to the United States for ethnic defamation and “instigating conflicts”, and that he traveled without authorisation from the church. However, the claim is false: the church confirmed to AFP Fact Check that A