A video can be genuine yet old, correctly located yet miscaptioned, or real without proving who was responsible or what happened beyond the camera’s view. To assess a report from Tigray, test its source, location, date, visible content and wider claims separately, then compare it with independent evidence. State only what the evidence supports.
Start by separating the media from its caption
A caption often bundles several claims together: what happened, where and when it happened, who was involved, and why. Treat each as a separate question. A verified image does not automatically verify every claim attached to it.
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- Event: What can be seen or heard, without interpretation?
- Place: Which location does the image or video show?
- Date: When was it recorded, as distinct from when it was posted?
- People or forces: Can the people or units be identified from reliable evidence?
- Cause or responsibility: Does independent evidence support the claim about who caused the event?
A repost may help trace how a clip circulated, but its posting date is not necessarily the recording date. Nor does a genuine clip necessarily show the full event.
Preserve the original and trace its source
- Save the original file if available, or the earliest accessible version. Keep the URL, account name, post time and caption together with it.
- Note whether the copy appears cropped, edited, subtitled or recompressed. These changes can remove context or make details harder to assess.
- Look for the earliest post you can locate and whether the account identifies a creator or direct witness. Record what is known and what remains unclear about the chain of custody.
- Do not treat file metadata or an account’s assertion as conclusive authentication. Metadata can be missing, altered or detached from the clip, and availability of metadata alone does not establish authenticity.
Check where the image was made
Compare distinctive features in the frame with independent imagery: buildings, road layouts, signs, terrain, vegetation and the skyline. One resemblance can be coincidental; several matching features in the right spatial relationship make a location match more persuasive. Account for construction or other changes since the image used for comparison was captured.
Human Rights Watch describes comparing video imagery with satellite imagery as part of its location work. Its guidance also cautions that street-level imagery has its own capture date, which should be checked rather than assumed to represent current conditions: Time Will Tell: How Human Rights Watch Identifies Time Through Analyzing Videos. Amnesty International’s general guide to visual investigations discusses matching landscapes, trees, buildings and streets, as well as considering weather and shadows: A guide to how Amnesty International verifies Russian military attacks in Ukraine. That guide describes general methods, not findings about Tigray.
A location match answers where; it does not establish when the footage was recorded or whether the caption’s account of the event is accurate.
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Establish the date independently
Compare visible light and shadows, weather, vegetation, construction changes and other time-sensitive details with the date being claimed. Check any usable file metadata and original posting timestamps, but treat these as clues rather than proof: a timestamp can refer to posting or copying, and digital information can be incomplete or manipulated.
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Describe what is visible before inferring what it proves
First record observable details: the camera’s viewpoint, visible damage, craters or remnants, injuries, and how the scene relates to the wider site. Then distinguish those observations from conclusions about weapons, intent, perpetrators or the full scale of an event. Specialist weapon or forensic assessments should be attributed to the investigators or experts who made them.
Amnesty’s general verification guide describes remote sensing and weapons expertise as components of investigations alongside other evidence. Those techniques can help interpret a scene, but a single visual clue should not be presented as a complete finding.
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Seek independent corroboration
Look for accounts and evidence that do not simply repeat the same original post. Independent eyewitness interviews, medical or forensic material, documentary records and satellite imagery may corroborate different parts of a claim. Several accounts repeating one source are not several independent confirmations.
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- Mai-Kadra, 2020: Amnesty International said its Crisis Evidence Lab digitally verified photographs and videos of bodies, confirmed the images were recent, and used satellite imagery to locate them in the town. The investigation also drew on witness accounts and an independent pathologist. Amnesty International’s account of the investigation.
- Western Tigray, 2020–2021: In a report published April 6, 2022, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said they reviewed medical reports and forensic analysis, satellite imagery, videos and photographs. They reported verifying five videos sent directly to researchers and six posted to Facebook or YouTube; those counts apply to that investigation, not to all material from the conflict. The organizations said their report documented specific incidents and trends rather than providing a comprehensive survey. The joint report.
- Daero, Mekelle, 2026: In a report published September 25, 2026, Human Rights Watch said it investigated an August 20 airstrike on a residential compound using interviews with three survivors, two medical workers and two residents who visited the site, alongside satellite imagery and verified photographs and videos. HRW reported 13 civilian injuries, including seven children. This figure refers to that incident and report, not the conflict as a whole. Human Rights Watch’s Daero investigation.
Account for gaps in what can be documented
Communications restrictions affected documentation in Tigray. In their 2022 report, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said those restrictions meant there were few videos and photographs available for analysis, and cautioned that their report was not a comprehensive survey. An incomplete record cannot establish that no other incidents occurred, nor can a handful of documented cases establish the overall frequency or accuracy of online reports.
The available investigations do not establish an overall accuracy rate for online Tigray conflict videos. Assess an individual item on its own evidence, and avoid turning limited documentation into a claim of complete coverage.
Write the conclusion at the level the evidence supports
Attribute findings to the organization, investigators or experts who made them, and distinguish an investigative assessment from a court finding. A careful conclusion identifies exactly which elements are supported—for example, that a clip matches a location, or that investigators verified a particular image—and which remain unestablished, such as the recording date, identities, responsibility or broader context.
Current conflict descriptions also need dates. Human Rights Watch’s September 25, 2026 report describes renewed hostilities and investigates an August 20 airstrike; it is a dated account of that reporting, not a permanent description of conditions across Tigray.
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