Jonah Wedekind

NEW REPORT | MINOR DEMARCATIONS MICRO-DAMS—MAJOR DRAMA?

@jowedekind.bsky.social and Kedir Jamal examine how admin changes, micro-dams and regional rivalries in the Oromia–Somali borderlands risk reigniting conflict and unsettling fragile peace.

Read more: bit.ly/4mm7WtI

#Ethiopia

A power struggle in Tigray risks Ethiopia’s peace deal As Tigray’s political leaders squabble, progress has stalled on key points of the peace agreement, including the return of a million displaced people.

Whether or not Tigray’s negotiators could have secured a better deal, the main sticking point now driving the TPLF apart is the failure to return home nearly one million displaced people – a key part of the peace deal.

Deadly skies: Drone warfare in Ethiopia and the future of conflict in Africa Drone warfare is increasing in Ethiopia and across Africa. These foreign-supplied weapons risk prolonging wars and can help drive governments further away from the West…

With no incentive to practice restraint, drone atrocities across Africa are becoming increasingly frequent, causing friction with Western partners. In Ethiopia, this has paved the way for Turkey and Russia to expand their influence. @zekuzelalem.bsky.social @ecfr.eu
📃👉

The antiwar community caught in the crossfire of Ethiopia’s Amhara conflict For two years, Awra Amba has been caught up in a war raging between Fano fighters and Ethiopian government soldiers.

My report for @aljazeera.com from Awra Amba, a utopian and pacifist community in the central highlands of Ethiopia.

They have won awards for their peacemaking and conflict resolution - but they have been caught in the crossfire of Ethiopia's latest civil war.

www.aljazeera.com/features/202...

New Alert 📰Tensions between #Ethiopia and #Eritrea are on the rise, and risk escalating into a military confrontation, with 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗮𝘀𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝘀 for the Horn region.

📚 Read more ⤵️

clingendael.org/publication/...

The cover of Issue 193 of The Continent (8 March 2025) is illustrated by political cartoonist Gado. It shows a boiling cauldron labelled TPLF - the Tigray People's Liberation Front. The fire beneath it is fuelled by an arsenal of weapons and the Pretoria Accord. Emerging from the pot are the words, " Tigray waits for another war". Noxious green fumes are rising in the shape of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki who, in the last war, joined forces to fight against the Tigrayans. In this illustration they are holding guns to each others' heads and pointing fingers of blame at each other. #Africa #Ethiopia #Tigray #TPLF #Eritrea #PretoriaAccord #TheContinent #AfricanJournalism

All Protocol Observed

Welcome to Issue 193 of The Continent.

In Tigray’s capital, Mekelle, everyday life is overshadowed by the threat of returning to war.

Listening Devices | Ann Neumann The veterans of Kagnew Station saw the early growth of the surveillance state. Has the passage of time given them a new understanding of their work?

Eritrea has long been subject to the whims of two more powerful nations: its neighbor Ethiopia, and the United States. Its geography made it a valuable asset, especially during the Cold War.

Ethiopia ES/NFI Cluster Operational Presence & Response Monitoring Dashboard for Amhara, Contested and Tigray Regions (as of 31 January 2025) - Ethiopia Infographic in English on Ethiopia about Coordination and Shelter and Non-Food Items; published on 5 Mar 2025 by IOM and Shelter Cluster

Tigray IDPs Enduring Squalid Living Conditions

Acc to the Global Shelter Cluster, highlighted the dire conditions of the more than 900,000 #Tigray IDPs—18% of whom face “severe overcrowding and lack of privacy,” which “pose(s) serious health and protection risks.” 1/
reliefweb.int/report/ethio...

genuinely curious.

Wtf, no.

Interesting. 🤔 Can you explain why not?

You can watch No Other Land and spread it far and wide bsky.app/profile/jann...

USAID Funding Freeze Leave Over 85pct Of Ethiopian Nonprofits Crippled Gov’t suspends work permits for foreign NGO staff

"Over 85 % of CSOs in #Ethiopia have paused operations following the Trump administration’s clampdown on #USAID" www.thereporterethiopia.com/44011/

Recent ethnic cleansing campaigns in Sudan and Ethiopia remind us Zero Discrimination Day (1 March) still marks
a distant aspiration. Based on 46,269 face-to-face interviews conducted by Afrobarometer, we may be losing ground. Via @thecontinent.org

#OtD 1 Mar 1896 Ethiopian forces decisively defeated Italian invaders at the battle of Adwa. Up to 70% of Italy's invasion force of around 6000 troops were captured or killed. Italy then gave up its claim of Ethiopia, and also surrendered some of Eritrea stories.workingclasshistory.com/article/7...

Fun trivia: Zelenskyy partly grew up in the copper mining town of Erdenet in Mongolia because his father worked for a mining company.

What a fascinating talk by @michellehenning.bsky.social, linking photography to chemical warfare via Benjamin's aura & Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia. Really looking forward to Henning's forthcoming book A Dirty History of Photography: Chemistry, Fog, and Empire press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...

When Sudan’s war broke out in 2023, about 12,500 Sudanese people crossed into Ethiopia. Initially, they were sheltered in the Awlala and Kumer refugee camps. But Ethiopia was experiencing its own conflict. As the fighting intensified, refugees became easy targets.

Decarbonisation threatens the very structure of intl order, founded on fossil-fuelled economic growth and interdependence

Can Climate action survive geopolitical fragmentation? Can it thrive on a tightrope?

@picharbonnier.bsky.social interview on War Ecology
greeneuropeanjournal.eu/if-you-want-...

Ethiopia : Amhara region cracks down on Qemant minority suspected of backing rebels The Qemant ethnic minority is in conflict with the authorities in Ethiopia's Amhara region over land disputes. Some of its representatives are being prosecuted on terror charges and are accused of

Amhara Region Cracks Down on Qemant Minority

The Qemant ethnic minority have been in conflict with the authorities in Amhara over land disputes. Some of their representatives are being prosecuted on terror charges and are accused of supporting Fano rebels.
www.africaintelligence.com/eastern-afri...

Once again, the rise of the AfD and its relatively greater popularity in the East has led to yet another round of discussion around the legacy of the GDR and contemporary German politics. A short thread:

In 2024 I spent a lot of time in Brandenburg and Sachsen, Länder that both voted >30% for the AfD

Here are a few observations from that time spent there (thread is from Mastodon, bridged to Bluesky)

This characterisation sounds right to me. He also seemed to push the breaks on some stuff which Merz advocated for, but that doesn't make it easier for him going forward - not that I mind CDU losing Berlin come fall next year... though that's a long time to do a lot of damage.

I also wonder how this will affect the Kai-✂️-hands. Will he continue cutting off the branch he's still sitting on?

... and not surprising.

so true.

Tigray war: Modern geographies of mass violence and the invisibilization of populations The war in Tigray, Ethiopia, which erupted in November 2020, has been marked by widespread atrocities, including organized massacres, the systematic u…

New publication via @politicalgeography.bsky.social 📜

How did the century’s deadliest war become invisible?

In this article, I provide a detailed analysis of the tactics & strategies the Ethiopian regime & allies used to commit & conceal #TigrayGenocide.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Merz getting overconfident and announcing the end of the Left.

One huge story from this election is that the incoming Chancellor got overexcited and said “the Left is finished” and a day later the Left became the biggest party in Berlin, and took almost 9% of the national vote. I hope that phrase haunts Merz for the rest of his career.

Und in Thüringen, Erfurt-Weimar-Weimarer Land I&II.