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We are worried that the war in Ethiopia might take a really, really violent turn
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There are news reports that things are escalating in Ethiopia.
The United States calls it a “very fluid security situation,” basically meaning that ‘yes, sh*t is likely to hit the fan.’ An armed group from the northern region of Tigray is heading for Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa and there are worries that it’s about to go down; maybe even a coup. Over the weekend, tens of thousands of people took to the street to express their solidarity with the country’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
Refresher: One year ago, fighting broke out between the Ethiopian government and the armed political group, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). The TPLF controls Tigray. Millions of people have had to flee their homes and some 400,000 people in the country’s north (where the fighting mostly took place until now but it’s reached other regions, too and maybe even the capital soon? Tbd.) are at risk of dying of extreme hunger because the fighting is so intense and everybody is blaming each other, ‘no, you’re the reason they’re almost dying.’ - ‘No, YOU are!’. It’s so intense that some 23 United Nations aid workers have been killed since fighting broke out. Today, this fight has gotten a little more complex, with more armed political groups joining hands and fighting the Ethiopian government. As of last week, both sides are now preparing for what looks like a ‘military showdown’.
Abiy’s government…
- has granted itself new emergency powers. It can now choose to ignore basic human rights or threaten the independence of the judiciary without it being ‘illegal’.
- has asked civilians and former soldiers to take up arms against the two groups it’s currently fighting against. ‘Protect your neighbourhoods. This is an existential war.’ (Last week, Facebook removed one of the posts from Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s account where he vowed to ‘bury his enemies’, Facebook was like, ‘eh, it was inciting violence’)
The armed groups…
- are growing in numbers. As of last week, there are now nine anti-government groups who all share the same goal as the TPLF: ‘Get Abiy Ahmed and his people to step down from government. Either by force or negotiations.’ The government is unimpressed, ‘they have no social bases and cannot do sh*t.’
- are well on their way to the capital Addis Ababa, reports show, as I’m writing this on a Sunday evening in Berlin.
Good to know: Ethiopia is a very, very, very multi-ethnic state. Some 80 different ethnic groups live here, sometimes peacefully, sometimes not-so-peacefully side by side. But: I’d love to dive deeper in this country's history. For example, did you know that the TPLF used to rule the entire country for 25 years? Or that the Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed got a Novel Peace Prize? If not, no worries, not many people do. Reply to this mail if you'd like me to work on a little history refresher episode on Ethiopia for you. I'll do it gladly.
What’s it like in Ethiopia at the moment?
Social media is full of ‘fight, fight, fight’ posts. Tigrayans are being discriminated against in the capital apparently. The internet is super patchy, not to mention lack of consistent electricity, especially where all the fighting is taking place.
Let’s talk about the reports of ethnic cleansing and sexual violence
A United Nations report just came out last week and says, the Ethiopian government forces and the Eritrean military have been the main bad actors but ethnic violence is happening from all sides here.
What does the international community say?
‘Stop fighting,’ says basically everyone but especially their neighbour countries like Kenya. But they can do so much more, according to the former United States ambassador Tibor Nagy. ‘The United States, European Union, UK, China, the Gulf states and Turkey could end this conflict right now if they would only stop selling weapons to both sides.’
Meanwhile in neighbouring Sudan...mass protests are being held against a military takeover. At least seven people have died since it started and hundreds injured. The military had been helping the country transition into a ‘democracy’ after its last leader, dictator Omar al-Bashir was overthrown.
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We finally put the men murdering Ahmaud Arbery on trial
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A 25-year-old Black man, Ahmaud Arbery, was shot dead by three white men on February 23, 2020 in Glynn County, Georgia, United States. All three men are now on trial for a lot of stuff, including murder. As of last Friday, the high-profile trial has officially started.
Who are the white men?
Travis McMichael, his father, Gregory McMichael and their neighbor William "Roddie" Bryan.
What really happened?
The prosecution says, ‘you chased an innocent Black man through a neighborhood in Glynn County with your pickup truck that had a Confederate flag symbol on it and shot him dead with a shotgun because you think he had been stealing stuff from an under-construction house in the neighborhood. You just assumed the worst about him because he was Black.’ His family says, ‘this was a modern-day lynching.’
The defense says, ‘it was self-defense; this was supposed to be a citizen’s arrest.’
Ten weeks passed between Arbery's death and the first arrests in the case, after a video of the killing became public.
Tell me more about the trial
The trial is probably going to last around two weeks. ‘There’s some fishy stuff already happening,’ says the prosecution. First, it took almost three weeks to select a jury for the trial. Then, they found 12 people. But they are 11 white people and one Black person. Even the judge (who could have reversed this) said, ‘this could be intentional discrimination.’ Arbery’s family says, ‘no sh*t. This is just yet another example of how racist this country is.’
To be continued.
Why this matters: The United States has been going through a kind of reckoning since the killing of George Floyd in May 2020 and the Black Lives Matter protests that swept the country after. But remember: Ahmaud Arbery was killed months before Floyd. His death was symbolic of the U.S.’s long history of racial violence. His family calls it a “modern-day lynching,” with many agreeing that this was an unjust killing of an innocent Black man in the name of the “law” by cops or so-called self-proclaimed vigilantes.
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We are talking about responsibility of artists after at least eight people died at a Travis Scott concert
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Eight people died at a very crowded hip hop concert in Houston, Texas, United States last week.
What happened?
About 50,000 people were at a sold-out concert by the U.S. rapper Travis Scott last weekend. And if you’ve never been to one of his concerts (I haven’t but I have friends who have; and admission looks like this), well, they’re famous for their raves. Raves are basically when a crowd at a concert decides to run towards a stage, all really densely packed and crushed against each other. This one got totally out of control because, well, there were 50,000 people running to the front and in every single direction. An ambulance car with flashing lights finally arrived at some point (it took them so long because crowds wouldn’t let them move). The youngest victim was 14 years old, the oldest 27. At least 25 people had to go to the hospital the same night. The company responsible for organizing the event, Live Nation, issued a statement saying they were "heartbroken for those lost and impacted."
How could this happen?!
‘There are a lot of unanswered questions,’ says Houston mayor Sylvester Turner. Police and the rapper’s team are working to figure out the details.
What are people saying on the internet?
My timeline is flooded with witness accounts and different analyses as to what really happened and, specifically, if Travis Scott did enough to stop what was going on once he had learned that people were injured.
- YouTube Xiran said, “Disappointed that @globalnews reported last night that Travis Scott "quickly tried to stop the concert" when that was NOT what happened and there's video proof of him continuing despite people yelling at him to stop and watching people being carried away unconscious.”
Why this matters: This is not new. Similar things have happened at other Travis Scott concerts. Plus, this incident isn't limited to the United States. Huge concerts take place worldwide and it's important that we talk about how to best design concert halls, etc to make sure people get home safe. There are other artists like Linkin Park or Post Malone who pay a lot more attention to their fans’ well-being.
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We are worried about Bosnia breaking up – Bosnian Muslims are especially at risk
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Refresher: The Bosnian War ended some 25 years ago. Between 1992 and 1995, more than 100,000 people were killed or went missing. Among them were around 8,000 Bosniak (Bosnian Muslims) men and boys who were murdered in the genocide of Srebrenica in July 1995. The country is now at a very sensitive moment and risks losing the peace it’s been working to achieve in the time since.
There's suddenly more fear than usual about a war breaking out in Bosnia and Herzegovina. One of the country’s three leaders, Milorad Dodik (ethnically Serb), announced that he is forming an army of only Bosnian-Serbs and is pulling out of the country’s state institutions. There is little backlash, and that is a problem.
Why is that a problem?
Because this sh*t could escalate very quickly. Bosnia is a country that’s dealt with a very, very ugly war some 25 years ago and that’s not very stable (yet). Different ethnic groups fought each other, and between 1992 and 1995, more than 100,000 people were killed or went missing. Among them were around 8,000 Bosniak (Bosnian Muslims) men and boys who were murdered in the genocide of Srebrenica in July 1995.
But that’s 25 years ago!
Yes… but the way the war ended… well, it didn’t really build a stable ground for lasting peace. The Dayton Agreement that all sides signed to end the war split the entire country by ethnic lines into two entities, one of them being the Republika Srpska, the other being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Today, most of Bosnia and Herzegovina's Serb population lives in Republika Srpska (according to Wikipedia, 13.99% Bosniaks and 2.41% Croats live there, too). Plus, the country also has three presidents to really represent everyone living there, the Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats. Milorad Dodik is one of the country’s presidents and also the Serb leader of Republika Srpska and has some not-so-subtle-racist plans for it.
Like what?
He’s threatening to pull out of the country altogether and declare independence. This is basically an on-going goal for a few decades now. And the last time that nationalists such as Dodik tried to have an independent Republika Srpska, there was bloodshed and the widespread, systematic persecution of non-Serb communities. As you (may or may not) know, the Bosnian Serb Army was largely behind the Srebrenica genocide.
Diversify your feed
Arnesa Buljušmić-Kustura is a genocide researcher, expert and author of ‘Letters from Diaspora’. Follow her on Twitter for anything Bosnia-related.
Why this matters: Read my response to “why is that a problem”.
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OTHER NEWS YOU MIGHT FIND INTERESTING
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Pakistan: Journalist Nazim Jokhio was killed after he made videos about illegal hunting of the threatened Houbara bustard by Arabs. 'Fun' fact: Hunting itself is banned in Pakistan, but allowed for wealthy people from abroad. Reporters Without Borders is calling for an open investigation into his murder.
China: Tennis star Peng Shui has accused Zhang Gaoli, a former top Communist Party leader, of sexual assault. And hell has broken loose.
Poland: A pregnant woman named Izabela died. 'She could have been saved if the doctors had aborted the baby but the doctors were too afraid to do it because the anti-abortion laws in this country are so strict,' says the family. Thousands of other people agreed and took to the streets over the weekend to show their support and to hopefully pressure the government to take another look at the country's laws.
Denmark: The country will end publicly financing fossil fuels abroad.
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There is a really proud man walking around in Brazil at the moment, and his name Jair Bolsonaro. He's also the country's president.
Last Wednesday, he awarded himself with the medal of the National Order of Scientific Merit. It's the country's highest honor, recognizing Brazilian and foreign personalities for their scientific and technical contributions to the development of science in Brazil.
Also, the presidential decree does not say what contributions by Bolsonaro justified the honor.
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If you enjoy this newsletter, you have this newsletter's patrons to thank at least in part. Patreon makes an important contribution to helping me stay freelancing and scour the internet for underrepresented news and perspectives. So, thank you so much to everyone supporting me there.
That's it. 'See' you next week. And again, thank you for your patience,
Sham
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