Zecharias Zelalem

Researcher and award-winning journalist with an eye on the Horn of Africa. Visiting Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. Human rights, drones, migration, #OSINT.
Contact: zechariaszelalem@gmail.com

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Last Notes

2026-03-07 19:09:18 UTC

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All in all, it shows just how increasingly interconnected war is, especially wars in Africa and the Middle East. Also interconnected, are the suffering and resulting humanitarian catastrophes.
Stop war, avert war, all wars.
My interview in the clip is preceded by that of Tsedale Lemma, my first editor and journalism mentor back in the day when I was a reporter for the Ethiopian news magazine Addis Standard.

2026-03-07 19:06:43 UTC

This week, I appeared on German state TV Deutsche Welle to discuss possible war in the Horn of Africa.
Among the points I make: Iran🇮🇷 bombing the UAE🇦🇪 could drain Emirati coffers a bit, impacting Emirati East African war operations.
This could lead to a postponing of war plans by Emirati client state Ethiopia🇪🇹 , while significantly hampering operations by its other proxy, the genocidal RSF in Sudan🇸🇩.
My interview begins at 12:24 at the link below.
https://youtu.be/v6chlOqON8g

2026-03-06 19:46:57 UTC

Appeared on the Global Dispatches podcast last week to discuss the complexities of possible war in the Horn of Africa. I discuss how none of the usual Middle East and regional powers involved in the region (🇸🇦 🇦🇪 🇹🇷 ) can be considered neutral brokers. There is space for an EU member state to bring parties to dialogue.
N.B...a follow up I'll put up tomorrow addresses the same brewing conflict vis a vis the deteriorating situation caused by the US/Israel war with Iran.
https://www.globaldispatches.org/p/ethiopia-is-sliding-fast-toward-major

2026-02-24 01:37:01 UTC

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This took months of research, including consuming radio, TV and print content produced from Israel. Our show zeroes in on trips to Israel made by "delegations" from South Africa, Ethiopia and Kenya.
While the robust media culture in South Africa and Kenya ensured that Israeli propaganda couldn't get by unchecked. No Kenyan journalists would go, and only gospel singers made the trip.
Ashamed to say that Ethiopian journalists were the most effective producers of Israeli friendly content.

2026-02-24 01:32:59 UTC

Hello friends,
If you missed it when it aired over the weekend, here is my TV production debut with Al Jazeera's The Listening Post. Over the course of four months, we investigated efforts by the Israeli government to whitewash genocide in Gaza and polish its reputation for African audiences. Israel began flying out journalists, social media influencers, even evangelical Christian singers to produce content from Israel.
We hold them to account with this program.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h23oLcWcoLI

2026-02-20 17:39:23 UTC

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Israel appears to be studying the results, country by country. For instance, following intense backlash from Moroccan journalists against colleagues who traveled to Israel, this year, Israel could not find journalists from Morocco. It sent a cultural troupe to instead.
All in all, our weakness as Africans? Too many dictatorships. A robust press culture would have us better resist efforts by not only Israel, but China and Russia as well, to sell us questionable narratives that violate humanity.

2026-02-20 17:34:19 UTC

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I'm ashamed to say this, but Ethiopian journalists have proven the most "effective" of all the Africans to be flown out to Israel. The Ethiopian airwaves and newspapers have been flooded with content that dehumanizes Palestinians, depicts Israel's genocide as a self defense move, or polishes Israel's reputation by highlighting advances in technology, agriculture or various religious heritage sites at a time when media focus should be on mass slaughter in Gaza.

2026-02-20 17:31:31 UTC

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The trips have led to mixed results: in some African countries, strong backlash has occurred, as was the case with Morocco and Kenya. So, Israeli authorities have been selective: it is now selecting journalists from countries run by dictatorships, where there are no press freedoms. i.e Ethiopia.
For Kenya, where there is a strong media culture, there were no journalists willing to go, so Israel recruited influencers and gospel music singers.

2026-02-20 17:28:30 UTC

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Since 2024, Israel has been quietly flying out delegations of journalists, influencers, politicians, even religious figures from different African states. The carefully curated trips take African visitors to tourist and religious sites, the Knesset, and Oct 7 attack sites.
Nothing that shines a light on the suffering of pesky Palestinians of course!
There have been trips with delegations from Morocco, Cameroon, Senegal, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa and more going so far.

2026-02-20 17:23:03 UTC

THREAD:
Selam fediverse friends,
A first in my career: I've co-produced an episode of the Al Jazeera TV show...The Listening Post and it will air tomorrow!
As you all know well, outrage over genocide in Gaza means Israel has lost the streets and the campuses of the western world.
So, Israel appears to have decided to focus its efforts on selling its narrative to....African audiences.
Also...tomorrow's episode will also feature the queen herself...Dr @nprofile…97y5
https://www.aljazeera.com/video/the-listening-post

2026-02-18 03:46:56 UTC

Hey friends! So as some of you know, as a journalist I cover the Horn of Africa region. As such, reporting on 🇵🇸 🇮🇱 is generally not part of my mandate.
And yet, the separate beats have aligned for me. Six months of work later, I'll have an investigation go live this weekend. It addresses Israel's genocide in Gaza & the African continent. Pertinent issues end up aligning the peoples of the world it seems.
Coming to Al Jazeera in a few days, I hope I can count on you to tune in!
Cheers.

2026-02-17 07:37:09 UTC

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The criminals operate in Myanmar, because it's too dangerous for them to do so in China. Last month, 11 Chinese operators of Burmese scam camps were executed in China.
Thailand tries to curb activities, including by shutting off internet to border villages where the scam camps are located.
How have the criminals reconnected to the web in response to this? Via good old Elon Musk. Starlink is among the biggest internet providers to Southeast Asian scamming compounds.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2gdrvy9gjo

2026-02-17 07:28:45 UTC

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Since 2021, a coup induced civil war, and the pandemic have created a booming scamming industry based out of Myanmar. Hundreds of scam compounds have since sprouted up, typically along the Burmese-Thai border. They target westerners with cryptocurrency and romance scams. But they are staffed by trafficked people from across Asia and Africa, who travel to Thailand believing they will be hired at well paying tech jobs in Bangkok...before being driven across the border where their ordeal begins.

2026-02-17 07:24:32 UTC

Hello fediverse friends.
For The Globe and Mail newspaper, I've spent the last four months hearing from survivors of Myanmar's infamous scam compounds. Run by Chinese criminal syndicates with the collaboration of at least one Burmese pro-junta militia, the camps are staffed by trafficking victims, including a growing number of Africans who are beaten, electrocuted and raped if they don't meet scamming targets. They aren't paid for their efforts.
My story is published.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-africans-scam-camps-myanmar-scamming-rings-asia/

2026-02-04 02:12:46 UTC

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It is groundbreaking because for years, Ethiopia denied that any massacre had taken place at Axum, this despite well documented report on it by Amnesty International.
The state poured resources into a huge social media campaign, coordinated with government supporters around the world. It whipped social media into a fascist frenzy, spreading denialism, conspiracy theories and attacking victims as well as journalists and researchers who documented the atrocity.
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2026-02-03 09:14:15 UTC

Uneasy peace agreed; five days of fighting halted.
Demonstrations were held yesterday in areas not far from where serious clashes between Ethiopian soldiers and Tigrayan rebels first broke out on Thursday.
Protesters called for an end to fighting and for rebels to vacate the area. In a country where spontaneous protest is criminalized, this was a state choreographed gathering.
Anyways, following behind the scenes diplomacy and calls by the international community, fighting has ceased for now.
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2026-02-01 09:43:00 UTC

With the uncertainty of a brewing war in Tigray, I didn't expect to see the Epstein files trending in the Horn of Africa, but they are.
67 year old Berhanu Nega, who is Ethiopia's current Education Minister, was the subject of emails exchanged in 2009 between the disgraced sexual offender, Henry Jarecki, a wealthy entrepreneur also dogged by allegations of SA, & Jim Miller, who at the time headed a fund that assisted persecuted scholars.
These emails were made accessible in Friday's release.
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2026-02-01 06:52:21 UTC

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The fighting is thus far sporadic, but it's fierce. The fiercest we've seen since war ended. My source tells me the Ethiopian government largely vacated territory after being attacked on Thursday, and is now seeking to mobilize a Tigrayan proxy force it formed in recent months with the hoping of weakening the TPLF from the inside.
The seriousness of the fighting is demonstrated by the fact that drones were deployed to Tigray, for the first time since November 2022.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/1/31/drone-strikes-in-ethiopias-tigray-kill-one-amid-fears-of-renewed-conflict

2026-02-01 06:47:03 UTC

Three days into a new conflict brewing in Ethiopia's Tigray region, the factions are either silent or somewhat cryptic thus far.
Today, in response to a call by the African Union for restraint, the TPLF, under whose command Tigrayan TDF rebels operate, wrote a response to the AU stating that they were open to engaging in dialogue. The letter does not acknowledge that fighting has broken out nor that the TPLF/TDF fired the first bullet. It's pretty vague and leaves more questions unanswered.
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2026-01-31 08:28:51 UTC

UPDATE: as fighting breaks out in Tigray, and drone strikes are reported...Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, with rumours flying and people panicking in Tigray... orders a photo shoot. State media cameras on him, broadcasting footage as he walks the streets of Jijiga in Eastern Ethiopia, accompanied by the President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of neighbouring Somalia and President Ismail Omar Guelleh of Djibouti.
It's as if nothing is happening in the north and all is well.
State media is mental torment.
#nevent1q…njpy
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2026-01-31 07:55:08 UTC

UPDATE: Tigray regional state TV is reporting that at 4 AM Ethiopian time (bout 6 hours ago) drones struck two vehicles in two north eastern Tigray towns, killing a driver and injuring another. It's the first civilian casualties in drone strikes in Tigray since the November 2022 ceasefire that ended the Tigray war. There are graphic images I won't share here.
Ethiopia has expanded its drone arsenal considerably since 2022, with the UAE playing a role in delivering armaments and other hardware.
#nevent1q…fln4
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2026-01-31 05:32:14 UTC

On Thursday, intense fighting between Ethiopian government forces & Tigrayan rebels broke out.
A brutal civil war between these factions killed hundreds of thousands from 2020 to 2022. Implementing a ceasefire agreed to in November 2022 has been complex. It has led to a breakdown in relations and now outright clashes.
The issue this time...the war could coalesce with the one in Sudan, with Tigrayan forces allied with the Sudanese government, and Ethiopia with the RSF.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/1/29/clashes-between-government-troops-and-tigrayan-forces-erupt-in-ethiopia

2026-01-05 00:16:12 UTC

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@nprofile…ywj0 a thorough and wonderful writeup on the stark differences between O Globo and other Brazilian media and (once again!) NYT and WaPost on the pro-Bolsonaro extortion racket. Some eyeopener!

2026-01-04 12:40:00 UTC

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@nprofile…ywj0 yes, I've noticed this with many the billionaire owned papers, Bezos was always going to comply and follow the money. I guess it will just become increasingly blatant now. Solidarity...here's to the remaining credible names weathering the storm, although its gonna be a very long 3 years

2026-01-04 12:22:31 UTC

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@nprofile…ywj0 Thank you for your valuable perspective! Completely makes sense with the hostage rescue or Bin Laden assault. I guess...if it's fuzzy as you say, there are no clear cut rules or regulations. I mistakenly assumed there was some sort of unwritten convention. It would definitely be interesting if it ended up being the patriotic/nationalistic pull that still sways people at major newsrooms in 2026.

2025-09-30 00:55:31 UTC

THREAD: This investigation took up most of my 2025 to produce, and it was published in this weekend's edition of @nprofile…l6rh newspaper.
On January 30 2025, a Djiboutian drone strike was carried out. Djibouti's government claimed it had attacked armed rebels in its own territory.
7 months of work reveals that it was actually a civilian massacre in neighbouring Ethiopia. The bloodshed and coverup implicating Djibouti, Ethiopia, France and Turkey & how international media got it all wrong.
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2025-09-06 04:16:09 UTC

The Continent, Africa's digital weekly pan-African newspaper, joins over 200 newsrooms in 70 countries across the world, blacking out their cover/home pages, in joint condemnation of Israel's continuing mass slaughter of Palestinian journalists, targeted for documenting genocide in their homeland. Get this weekend's edition, which also features a dispatch from Al Jazeera journalist Ansam Al-Kitaa.
@nprofile…l6rh https://www.thecontinent.org/
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2025-07-18 05:14:28 UTC

Wrote in @nprofile…uzsw about the Ethiopian doctors' labour movement. Their month long labour strike paralyzed Ethiopia's health sector. Ethiopian doctors are among the lowest paid doctors in Africa, with salaries on average ~70$ monthly. Strikers demanded better pay & fair working conditions among other things.
In response, authorities arrested 149 striking doctors.
Undeterred, the MDs are planning a new strike if reform isn't inplemented by Sept 15.
https://globalvoices.org/2025/07/15/whats-behind-the-mass-arrests-of-ethiopian-doctors/

2025-06-29 19:34:40 UTC

While John Cena won the WWE title in Saudi Arabia this weekend, nearly a hundred migrants from Ethiopia, Egypt and Somalia were preparing for their executions on drug related charges.
For the Middle East Eye, I document the sudden upscale in executions in the Kingdom, the plight of a family of one condemned man on death row, and efforts by researchers and NGOs documenting the scourge, and calling on crown prince Mohammed bin Salman to commute the death sentences.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/least-50-african-people-risk-imminent-execution-saudi-arabia

2025-06-27 22:21:47 UTC

Research and work travel has me busy, and I've killed my posting activity. We're back though, take #2190381. Fediverse was missed!
Bio in 2025.
https://ecfr.eu/profile/zecharias-zelalem/

2025-04-12 00:33:54 UTC

Re: ICJ genocide case
Not that one. Sudan has filed a case against the UAE for complicity in genocide, citing the its support for the Rapid Support Forces, whose atrocities against non Arabs in Darfur have been described as genocide by the likes of HRW & the US State Dep.
It's unclear if the ICJ has jurisdiction, but oral arguments have been heard for yet another genocide accusation.
Was busy with work, will post regularly again, as we all ought to keep eyes on this.
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/sudan-tells-icj-uae-complicit-and-driving-force-behind-genocide

2025-03-17 08:11:35 UTC

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She has covered everything from wars in the Horn, to press freedom in three languages. Enhancing global understanding about an underreported region, she helped bridge the info gap for millions living under totalitarian rule. As a result, for over a decade, fascist regime trolls have threatened and harassed her incessantly both on social media and even in person. But her dedication to the mission pushed her on, even when she could have asked to avoid contentious stories.
https://www.voanews.com/author/salem-solomon/yoi_q

2025-03-17 08:07:03 UTC

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Salem's professionalism in her coverage of our region is especially awe inspiring when you consider her story. An Eritrean born in Ethiopia, she was among thousands of deported from Ethiopia during the outbreak of war between those countries (1998-2000). The Eritrean army immediately conscripted her & prepared to send her to the war front as a child soldier. It's enough to make anyone else bitter with hate. She wrote about it in an op-ed for the NY Times in 2018.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/28/magazine/ethiopia-eritrea-war.html

2025-03-17 08:00:00 UTC

In full solidarity with @nprofile…lsq9 & other VOA staffers put on leave. Salem is a multi-award winning editor/reporter working in Tigrigna, Amharic AND English, serving audiences across Africa & the world. I'm proud to have been mentored by her for years, she's an inspiration, a sister from another mother.
On that wasteland known as X, her post was swarmed with pro-regime trolling & misogynistic hate.
Best indicator of who is happiest with the clampdown on free press: fascist men.
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2025-03-17 01:09:14 UTC

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It's important to recognize that this shutdown attempt coincides with Russian propaganda outlet Sputnik's Africa wide expansion efforts. While the VOA offers complete editorial independence to its different language departments, Sputnik does not. It quite openly serves as a pro Moscow bullhorn, delivering sanitized and censored news that is largely dictator friendly and hardly different from the state propaganda offered by governments in countries like Eritrea.
https://dair-community.social/@ZekuZelalem/114034364756978499

2025-03-17 01:04:24 UTC

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For instance, in recent weeks the Eritrean government was reported to have launched a new mass conscription campaign, hinting at a possible new war.
Such news when disseminated by the likes of the VOA, gives youths the chance to at least attempt to flee. State propaganda censors such news in an attempt to create docile and compliant citizens.
The loss of VOA Tigrigna in a country like Eritrea, previously described as a "news desert" will be felt heavily.
https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/02/09/eritrea-crackdown-draft-evaders-families

2025-03-17 01:00:36 UTC

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The VOA produces news in 48 languages, among them Tigrigna, the most spoken language in Eritrea and Ethiopia's Tigray region. Since 1996, Tigrigna radio broadcasts have provided an alternative and independent source of news for Eritreans, who can tune in on radio signals that are difficult and expensive to jam.
With internet service extremely expensive and poor, Eritreans still rely on radio, and this will be a huge blow for people there.
https://tigrigna.voanews.com/

2025-03-17 00:54:39 UTC

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In Eritrea, my mother's homeland and a country in East Africa bordering Ethiopia, Sudan and Djibouti, there is no free press under the rule of former rebel commander turned President for life Isaias Afewerki. Eritrea is home to the longest jailed journalists anywhere in the world, and Reporters Without Borders ranked Eritrea 180th (last) in the world for its 2024 Press Freedom Index.
Six million people in Eritrea have precious few sources of independent news.
https://rsf.org/en/country/eritrea

2025-03-17 00:50:50 UTC

THREAD: Most of you by now have heard news of Trump's latest Executive Order, effectively dismantling the Voice of America. I heard it from friends and colleagues at the network, among the 1,300 put on leave.
While there were various issues with the VOA, there's no doubting its critical importance.
The impact of the decision, while not as devastating as the USAID aid freeze, will be as long ranging and damaging to the world, and yes, US interests as well.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvge4l109r3o

2025-03-10 17:12:26 UTC

THREAD: Lighthearted news...
Ethiopia's national swimming federation has elected Kiros Habte Kinfe as its new President. Who cares and why am I telling you?
Kiros made international headlines in 2016, when as head of the swimming program then, he allocated the country's sole male swimming slot for the 2016 Rio Olympics...to his overweight son Robel.
Nepo baby Robel went to the Olympics, finished in last place in the 100m freestyle, heats, & became a global phenomenon as a "dad bod" Olympian.
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2025-03-07 04:12:23 UTC

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Very proud of the rich history & heritage of the sole country to preserve its independence amid the scramble of Africa.
But this can't be what the ancestors died for.
I'm aware that the process of state foundation is usually a particularly bloody process everywhere. It's no different for Ethiopia.
It's just that elsewhere, the bloodshed reaches a peak, subsides and then completely ends.
When will that happen in Ethiopia? Will I even live to see that?
Sigh.
FIN.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Adwa

2025-03-07 04:05:06 UTC

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Free and independent Ethiopia has never known anything other than brutal authoritarian regimes in its history following the end of the Italo Ethiopian wars. The country has waged civil war after civil war, which triggered at least two devastating man made famines that many around the world know the country for.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to commemorate the 129 year old battle of Adwa, when barely two years ago, Adwa was the setting for genocidal violence.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/02/28/ethiopia-massacre-tigray-eritrea/

2025-03-07 04:02:22 UTC

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The Italian invasions impacted Ethiopian society so much that in the Amharic language, the word "fascist" is often mistaken for a word describing cruelty by a leader. Mussolini and Graziani are equated with the devil incarnate. The resistance to the colonial invaders, the world's silence, all of it is enshrined in Ethiopian folklore...with Adwa 1896 being the lynchpin of Ethiopian patriotism.
And yet...

2025-03-07 03:58:57 UTC

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Anyways, Italian forces never managed to pacify Ethiopia, with areas beyond the capital hotbeds of Ethiopian resistance. Eventually, fighting in Ethiopia coalesced with the WW2 Mediterranean/Middle East Theatre of War. With the help of the British, the Italians were finally pushed out of East Africa by 1941.

2025-03-07 03:56:17 UTC

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Inaction by the League of Nations...mirrors the UN's ineptitude today.
This photo shows Ethiopia's Emperor Haileselassie addressing the League of Nations, calling for the world to reel Benito Mussolini in.
Only a few countries refused outright to recognize Italy's annexation of Ethiopia, among them the USSR, China, Mexico, the US.
Had WWII turned out differently, the UN could have been used to certify Italian sovereignty over Ethiopia, similar to what happened with Palestine in 1948.
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2025-03-07 03:47:37 UTC

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Anyways, you could imagine the sentiments in Ethiopia, when news emerged in 2012 that a monument honouring Rodolfo Graziani had been built.
The debate was largely focused on the divisions Italy's fascist past cause in Italian society, and you may be forgiven for being unaware of the horrors endured by populations in Libya and Ethiopia.
I hum the "Bella Ciao" song whenever I hear it playing to honour my ancestors :)
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-19267099

2025-03-07 03:43:21 UTC

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From 1935-1941, Italian war crimes in Ethiopia are estimated (by Ethiopian accounts) to have cost the lives of over 500k civilians.
Gen Rodolfo Graziani oversaw ground operations for Mussolini. In response to a 1937 failed assassination attempt by Ethiopian resistance that wounded him, Italians went on a 72 hour killing spree that is said to have killed over 30,000 civilians in Addis Ababa.
A sombre ceremony is held every February to commemorate the victims. This is a monument to them.
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2025-03-07 03:32:12 UTC

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Decades later, keen on erasing what he viewed as a national humiliation, Fascist leader Benito Mussolini ordered a new invasion of Ethiopia, this time with a far wider gap in the supremacy of the armaments, which included warplanes.
The 2nd Italo-Ethiopian war began in 1935, and this time the Italians managed to pass Adwa and secure the capital Addis Ababa.
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2025-03-07 03:22:59 UTC

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"Italy's Terrible Defeat" was the NY Times headline. Afterwards Ethiopia & Italy negotiated a treaty where Italy would recognize Ethiopia's independence, in exchange for among other things, the return of thousands of Italian POWs. The 1896 treaty of Addis Ababa would lead to Ethiopia's joining the league of nations a few decades later. The stunning victory over a colonial power inspired future African countries to adopt green, yellow & red colour flags upon independence.
https://www.nytimes.com/1896/03/04/archives/italys-terrible-defeat-three-thousand-men-killed-sixty-guns-and-all.html
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2025-03-07 03:15:10 UTC

Thread for history lovers.
On March 1st, Ethiopia celebrated the 129th anniversary of the Battle of Adwa, where Ethiopian forces repulsed Italy's invading colonial forces, ending the First Italo-Ethiopian war, and preserving Ethiopia's independence in 1896. Annual ceremonies like this one, honour Ethiopia's fallen warriors whose sacrifice meant Ethiopia would remain the only uncolonized country in Africa.
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2025-02-28 23:41:44 UTC

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Turkish Bayraktar TB2s, Chinese Wing Loong drones, Iranian Mohajer-6 drones...these weapons have become core components of diplomacy with African governments.
It is pushing more and more leaders, who could have contemplated peace talks to end wars with rebel forces, to go to war, sold the idea that drones lead to quick military victories.
They don't, and Africans are paying the price for the geopolitical escapades of Ankara, Tehran, Beijing, Tel Aviv and others.

2025-02-28 23:37:07 UTC

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My paper explains that there is a causal link between the proliferation of cheap drones in Africa, and a political realignment towards Moscow that is precipitating the gradual disappearance of democratic rights.
However, while certain African drone operators are criticized by Western states for atrocities...Morocco, whose drones include Israeli models, after the normalization deal between Israel and Morocco brokered by Trump in 2020...gets off scot free.
The double standards are a problem.

2025-02-28 23:32:38 UTC

Did something I've never done: this is a long read policy paper for ECFR advising European lawmakers on addressing the proliferation of cheap drones in Africa, leading to the deaths of thousands of civilians, with Ethiopia as a study case.
It addresses the role of 🇹🇷 🇮🇷 🇨🇳 🇦🇪 in distributing drones, and how 🇷🇺 is capitalizing on the widening gap between western countries and drone operating African countries as a result.
ECFR is the European Council on Foreign Relations.
https://ecfr.eu/publication/deadly-skies-drone-warfare-in-ethiopia-and-the-future-of-conflict-in-africa/#acknowledgments

2025-02-20 04:38:37 UTC

🇷🇺 / 🇪🇹
Today, Russian state media outlet Sputnik expanded its broadcast presence in Ethiopia, opening an "Africa Hub" in Addis Ababa.
Some of this footage is from the launch ceremony, where Ethiopian parliamentary speaker Agegnehu Teshager, and Valentina Matvienko, Russia's Federation Council speaker were both present.
Sputnik, which already had a presence in Ethiopia, expands at a time when Ethiopian media outlets and civil society orgs face shutdowns, and the arrests of their members.
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2025-02-17 04:28:26 UTC

"Now or never!" says @nprofile…l6rh .
While representatives of global superpowers were being lectured (scolded?) at the Munich Security Conference...African leaders were in the Ethiopian capital, for the annual African Union summit. As my longtime editor, friend and The Continent's founder Simon Allison explains...it's time for leaders to come to terms on a way forward, as Trump unleashes devastating USAID cuts, mass deportations impacting many Africans and a trade war against South Africa.
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2025-02-10 10:26:37 UTC

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So it ended on that note. Tried my best. Drained, furious, disillusioned. The deaths of these African women were an inconvenience, a nuisance to too many bureaucrats. In the end, their collective effort to ensure these stories stay untold, that these Black lives do not matter, has proven successful.
Hate this effing world.

2025-02-10 10:25:47 UTC

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FYI...I'm aware that most, if not all of the Africans victims of the IDF campaign in Israel, were simply buried in Lebanon. Repatriation of bodies costs around $3,000 US, a price most families cannot afford. Governments did not offer to shoulder that burden either.
So, mourning families have been denied an explanation, recognition of any kind, and even burial at home.

2025-02-10 10:23:52 UTC

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Spent months trying to confirm accounts and present stories. I have some names and photos, but families in Ethiopia are afraid to go on record in interviews that could be perceived as criticism of the state. I struggled to find families of victims elsewhere in Africa. Without stories, consent...I have mere citations and unconfirmed accounts...like these from a story I wrote last year.
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2025-02-10 10:20:01 UTC

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During the pandemic, this same Lebanese Ministry of Health had a website listing not only covid19 fatalities, but even infected people by nationality. I cited this in a report back when I worked for local Ethiopian media to highlight the number of infected Ethiopian migrants in Lebanon. As many of you will know, there was an effort in too many countries around the world to link the spread of covid19 to migrants.
Why refrain from listing nationality this time?
https://addisstandard.com/news-despite-denial-by-ethiopias-consul-number-of-coronavirus-cases-among-ethiopians-in-lebanon-reaches-eight/

2025-02-10 10:15:18 UTC

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And Lebanon?
The Lebanese Ministry of Health is aware of how many foreigners, including Syrian & Palestinian refugees, Asian & African migrant workers, were murdered in Israel's aerial campaign. It chose to simply issue a total death toll (4,047) without specifying the nationalities of the victims. For outsiders and most media outlets, this gives the impression that the dead consists entirely of Lebanese. A narrative that might be helpful for some, while perpetuating erasure for others.

2025-02-10 10:09:58 UTC

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For African governments (Ethiopia & Sierra Leone among them), the choice to stay silent and not comment...is to avoid public backlash at home & scrutiny over a failure to rescue citizens from conflict. Diplomats from these two countries have confirmed to me that they've been ordered not to state anything about casualties among their nationals in Lebanon.
The other reason for their silence? To protect valued diplomatic ties with Israel. Noone wants to fight with Israel over these pesky deaths.

2025-02-10 10:05:53 UTC

Frustrated rant:
Israel's indiscriminate bombing campaign of Lebanon killed over 4,000 people from 2023-2024, the grand majority civilians with no affiliation to Hezbollah or any armed entity.
Among the dead, anywhere from a dozen to 30 African migrants (maybe, likely more). Most of them, Ethiopian domestic workers who were in apartments flattened by warplanes.
You haven't heard of these stories, because they have been successfully buried. By governments in Lebanon and across Africa.

2025-01-23 04:50:11 UTC

THREAD: Some notes on Avera Mengistu
Avera Mengistu, 38, is an Ethiopian born Israeli civilian held hostage by Hamas in Gaza since 2014. He has a history of mental illness that exempted him from IDF service.
In Sept 2014, he scaled the wall separating Israel from Gaza, and crossed into Gaza. He is believed to have been kidnapped shortly afterwards.
With the ceasefire, he is reportedly set for release soon.
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2023-10-09 21:07:40 UTC

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Last week, the Journa server was taken over by new management. None of us were notified, and I found out when server updates caused account to freeze for a few hours.
The instance has now been taken over by a "Jeff Brown" from Newsie. Now, I have no idea who he is and have no ill will towards him. But the individual is not a journalist. I couldn't find anything on him online that would suggest that he would be trustworthy enough to oversee management of Mastodon's largest journalism instances.
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2023-10-09 20:59:22 UTC

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When I left Twitter, I joined the Journa server primarily because it was run by journalists with verifiable credentials who were keen on creating a safe, clean space for journalists to interact free of the toxicity that was ubiquitous on Twitter. I'm still grateful to the likes of Evan Urquhart and Adam Davidson who administered the instance and never let us down in that regard. Journa was a refreshing change from what we had grown accustomed to, especially in the wake of the Musk takeover.

2023-10-09 20:52:38 UTC

🧵 Hey all! This is a new account, I'm still Zecharias Zelalem, freelance journalist and aspiring OSINTer providing news and analysis on the Horn of Africa for a variety of international media outlets. For the past year or so, I posted via @npub182w…su7c, but I've transitioned away from that instance. I'll be posting from this account from now on. After recent changes on the journa dot host instance, I had no choice but to set up elsewhere. Hope to continue exchanges and friendships here.