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Zecharias Zelalem

ZekuZelalem@dair-community.social

<p>Researcher and award-winning journalist analyzing geopolitics and conflict, and investigating human rights abuses including war crimes and human trafficking in the Horn of Africa.</p><p>You can support my work here: buymeacoffee.com/zekuzelalem</p>

Posts

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    As war rages on in Ethiopia, Ethiopia&amp;#39;s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announces today that it ordered the closure of its embassy in Asmara, Eritrea. It also expelled ten Eritrean diplomats based in Ethiopia, days after accusing the country of assisting the rebel alliance in its war against the federal government. Largely ceremonial, as diplomatic relations between the two countries have been largely severed since 2023, when Ethiopia began openly threatening to attack its neighbour.

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    BREAKING: Eritrea has responded to Ethiopia&amp;#39;s expulsion of ten diplomats from its embassy by announcing that it is officially severing all ties with Ethiopia, who it accuses of arming elements of the Eritrean opposition. It also denied accusations made by Ethiopia. With this, all the gains made by the groundbreaking peace treaty of 2018 that eventually secured Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed the Nobel Peace Prize a year later, are reversed. Back to square one with all out war brewing on the h...

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    🇪🇹🇪🇬 Yet another diplomatic expulsion: Ethiopia has declared Ahmed Moharam Ahmed Soliman, an Egyptian diplomat based at the Egyptian Embassy in Addis Ababa, persona non grata. He has 48 hours to leave the country. Ethiopia has repeatedly accused Egypt of supporting the Ethiopian armed rebel alliance currently at war with Ethiopia&amp;#39;s army. Regional tensions continue to rise.

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    Hilarity last night. I&amp;#39;ve been on well over a dozen or maybe even two dozen Al Jazeera TV segments. So, when I got up to appear on a new show yesterday I thought nothing of it. Another day at the office I thought. Until I found out with minutes to go to air time, that I was actually being prepped for a segment on...wait for it....AJ Arabic. N.B Your boy only knows how to curse in Arabic😬

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    After the Ethiopian army&amp;#39;s push into Tigray and capture of Mekele, Eritrean soldiers have now unsurprisingly intervened on behalf of the Ethiopian rebel alliance. This dangerous new plot twist threatens to exacerbate an already dire situation on the ground. Ethiopia responded by attacking arriving Eritrean units with drones, near the border town of Zalambessa. Reporting by my good friend Yemane Nagish of the BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckvgd63rj92lo

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    #̶̶̶A̶̶̶̶̶̶̶f̶̶̶̶̶̶̶r̶̶̶̶̶̶̶i̶̶̶̶̶̶̶c̶̶̶̶̶̶̶a̶̶̶̶̶̶̶U̶n̶̶̶̶̶̶̶i̶̶̶̶̶̶̶t̶̶̶̶̶̶̶e̶̶̶̶̶̶̶ Provided an explainer today for Al Jazeera on the African frictions behind Ethiopia&amp;#39;s ongoing new conflict. After Ethiopian soldiers made gains and captured a slew of towns, Eritrean soldiers intervened &amp;amp; are fighting on behalf of the rebel alliance. What possible role could an alliance between Egypt, Eritrea, Sudan &amp;amp; Somalia play? From Red Sea ambitions, to war in Sudan, I got the geopolitical mess within the continent here for you. https://www.aljazeer...

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    RE: AIRSTRIKES Two reports into aerial atrocities vis a vis the conflict in Ethiopia. Firstly, HRW conducted a visual probe of an Ethiopian airstrike on the Tigrayan capital of Mekele in late August. It was one of a slew of strikes in the lead up to war breaking out Tuesday. 13 civilians were injured. HRW found no evidence of any valid military targets. A residential area was targeted, HRW say it was an indiscriminate strike and a possible war crime. https://www.hrw.org/news/2026/09/25/ethiopi...

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    UPDATE: As war rages on in Ethiopia, NetBlocks confirms that what it calls a &quot;subnational internet disruption,&quot; has been implemented in the country&#39;s north. Scores of Tigrayans are suddenly unable to communicate with family. Phone/internet is disrupted across the Tigray region. Service from the Ethiopian state telecoms provider is completely severed, but service by Kenyan company Safaricom remains active for now, meaning some Tigrayans can still connect and make phone calls. A...

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    War breaks out in Ethiopia. Tigrayan forces attack federal government positions on two fronts &amp; capture the region&#39;s airports. There have been minor skirmishes here and there, but this is the most serious outbreak of fighting since the 2022 Pretoria ceasefire ended the Tigray war. Tragically, shuttle diplomacy efforts by the international community have failed. Ethiopia is on the brink of being plunged back into all out civil war. It&#39;s a disaster. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/...

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    Appeared on the Proximities podcast with Barry Malone, to discuss Ethiopia&#39;s elections which ended in an unsurprising Abiy Ahmed landslide victory. Discussed the six years of democratic backsliding, the threat of war with neighbouring Eritrea, and the messy geopolitical situation caused by the Riyadh Abu Dhabi fallout. Barry was once the Reuters correspondent in Addis Ababa, and produced the Al Jazeera The Stream episodes on Ethiopia that I&#39;ve appeared on since 2020. https://youtu.be/R...

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    THREAD: Hello friends. So depending on your exposure to African news, you may or may not recognize the girl in the photo. But with the Iran Hormuz deadlock, and global powers looking elsewhere for trade corridors, it is timely to know about her. Especially if you are American. Her story may (should!) become very relevant in the near future. Her name is Ciham Ali Abdu and she is an American citizen. She hasn&amp;#39;t been seen or heard from since 2012.

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    Two other experts appear with me, and we explain how the race to secure the Bab El Mandeb, is carving East Africa apart. The region has the world&#39;s bloodiest ongoing conflict still raging on in Sudan, and reels from the Tigray war, the deadliest conflict of the 21st century that killed half a million people in Ethiopia and ended in 2022. With both countries becoming proxy battlegrounds for regional powers, a new conflict could engulf Ethiopia, Eritrea and Sudan. https://www.thetimes.com/...

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    The UN Secretary General and EU officials were among those who publicly called for both sides to stop shooting at each other. I&#39;m told diplomats have agreed to meet with both factions and hear them out. The factions themselves remain mostly tight-lipped about everything, but a positive sign is that Ethiopian Airlines has agreed to resume flights to Tigray after it had halted them on Thursday. https://press.un.org/en/2026/sgsm23002.doc.htm

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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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    My latest for Middle East Eye: satellite imagery analysis reveals that an Ethiopian army base in western Ethiopia is being used by Sudan&amp;#39;s genocidal RSF militia as a logistics and weapons supply hub. From the base, the RSF have crossed into Sudan and launched attacks on Sudanese army positions. Sources we&amp;#39;ve reached in Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia all say the initiative is backed by the UAE. In collaboration with researchers from Yale University. https://www.middleeasteye.net/ne...

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    &amp;quot;Genocide resumes,&amp;quot; reads this weekend&amp;#39;s cover of @thecontinent newspaper, as El Fasher finally falls after a 500+ day siege by the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan. The RSF, long implicated in genocidal violence in Darfur dating back to the days of its predecessor the Janjaweed back in 2004, have been on a deadly rampage killing thousands in recent days. Sudanese activists had been warning for over a year of what could happen if they were to overrun El Fasher. The disas...

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    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&amp;#39;ll have an investigation go live this weekend. It addresses Israel&amp;#39;s genocide in Gaza &amp;amp; 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 t...

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    THREAD: Selam fediverse friends, A first in my career: I&amp;#39;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&amp;#39;s episode will also feature the queen herself...Dr @timnitGebru https:/...

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    @GRA3432 I&amp;#39;ll never leave. Thank you for your time!

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    Hello friends, If you missed it when it aired over the weekend, here is my TV production debut with Al Jazeera&amp;#39;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....

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    This week, I appeared on German public 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

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    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&amp;#39;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.globaldi...

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    Hello fediverse friends. For The Globe and Mail newspaper, I&#39;ve spent the last four months hearing from survivors of Myanmar&#39;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&#39;t meet scamming targets. They aren&#39;t paid for their efforts. My story is published. https:/...