Tom Gardner

the shredding of international liberal order's legitimacy is because everyone knows the answer to @edwardluce.bsky.social thought experiment www.ft.com/content/6176...

Can a home-grown telecoms firm connect South Sudan to the world? Civil war need not be an insurmountable obstacle

In @economist.com this week I profiled Digitel, South Sudan's first locally-owned telecoms provider, in its bid to topple big multinational rivals in exceptionally challenging circumstances

www.economist.com/middle-east-...

Earlier this month I travelled to Bosaso and Garowe in Puntland, the strongest of Somalia's five federal states, to report on the intense debate underway about one of the world's oldest state-building projects.

(My photo from the road from Garowe to Bosaso)

www.economist.com/middle-east-...

Ok, got it

Sorry, would include myself in that (to my shame)!

is this surprising from NRC, or from Dutch TV?

And here is this week's leader: on the risks Ruto poses to Kenya, its democracy, its economy and its fraying social contract

t.co/0maJ0yXJkT

Kenya’s president is bad news for Kenya and Africa William Ruto’s tenure is a how-to guide for sowing cynicism about democracy

My latest—on how Ruto may do more damage to the Kenyan state, and underlying social contract, than any of his predecessors since the restoration of democracy in the 1990s
👇
www.economist.com/middle-east-...

Jaw-dropping reporting by Haaretz www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...

What a picture from #Kenya 🇰🇪

My newsletter this week is on the march of Africa's Christian right, their allies in Washington, and why their political ascendance is unlikely to be brief flash in the pan 👇

view.e.economist.com?qs=8be6d9793...

The war in Sudan is spilling over its borders Fighting in the desert between Libya and Egypt will make the conflict even harder to end

Control of the so-called "triangle" between Libya, Egypt and Sudan could let the RSF threaten the Northern region, one of few parts of Sudan largely untouched by war.

My latest on a war which is far from dying down 👇

www.economist.com/middle-east-...

African architects have cool designs for a warming planet They take inspiration from everything from the local terrain to termites

When in Burkina Faso I met and interviewed the Pritzker-prize winning architect Francis Keré—the best known of a cohort of African architects whose ideas are at the profession’s cutting edge 👇

(I also toured his latest project: a memorial for Thomas Sankara)

economist.com/culture/2025...

Africans are building Putin’s suicide drones Russia is luring young African women to make weapons to attack Ukraine

This week's piece is about a drone factory in Russia staffed primarily - and very strangely - by African women aged between 18 and 22.
www.economist.com/middle-east-...

What a massacre reveals about Abiy Ahmed’s Ethiopia The killing of civilians is part of a disturbing pattern

"The anarchy allows Abiy to divide & discredit his enemies, arguably strengthening his hand. But it also erodes the authority of the Ethiopian state, potentially threatening his grip on power. Abiy may see method in the madness. Ethiopians are paying the price."

www.economist.com/middle-east-...

Meet Africa’s ascendant right They are devout, well-connected and have a MAGA wind in their sail

Africa’s Christian right sees itself as a plucky, righteous David struggling against a godless, liberal Goliath. That is wildly misleading today. Thanks to their ties to right-wingers in America, Christian conservatives in Africa now wield huge clout👇

www.economist.com/middle-east-...

📣 ANNOUNCING THE 2025 ESSAY PRIZE SHORTLIST 📣

TESSERAE by Phoebe Braithwaite

MY GREAT NOVEL by Cassandre Greenberg

ON REFUSAL by Sarai Kirshner

CRAPES by Hana Loftus

GULLY CRICKET by Abhinav Ullal

SHOW US THE BODY by Claire Wilmot

For more information: fitzcarraldoeditions.com/prizes/essay...

Africa’s oldest surviving Catholic church is under threat A centuries-old chapel is a testament to Christianity’s deep roots in Africa

This week's piece is a short one on what an endangered Portuegese chapel in Malindi, on the Kenyan coast, reveals about the past--and future--of Catholicism in Africa:

www.economist.com/middle-east-...

Sudan orders halt to South Sudan oil exports citing RSF attacks - Sudan Tribune May 10, 2025 (JUBA) – Sudan has directed oil companies to begin shutting down the pipeline that carries crude oil from South Sudan for export, citing repeated attacks by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF)...

The drone attacks on Port #Sudan seem to have more lasting impact. The closure of oil exports, less than two weeks after they had been fully restored from #SouthSudan, threatens the political economy there further. The sea port is also not functional.
sudantribune.com/article300736/

The fight for Sudan’s skies A drone attack on the coast heralds a new phase in the country’s civil war

“No place is safe any more,” says Suliman Baldo of the Sudan Transparency and Policy Tracker, a conflict-monitoring group.

A war that has forced 12m of Sudan’s 50m people from their homes and caused one of the world’s worst famines has shifted to the skies.

www.economist.com/middle-east-...

Friends with benefits? The country still in thrall to the Wagner Group In the Central African Republic locals are learning Russian while mercenaries knock back lager

And the second is long read from Bangui in the Central African Republic, where local elites have repeatedly worked the geopolitics of hosting Wagner to their advantage www.economist.com/1843/2025/04...

How “Putin’s chef” built the world’s most notorious private army Two books trace the extraordinary rise and rapid fall of Yevgeny Prigozhin

And two recent pieces on the Wagner Group in Africa, starting with my review this week of two great new books on the mercenary outfit - one by @johnalechner.bsky.social, and the other by @jackmargolin.bsky.social

www.economist.com/culture/2025...

What a wrecked ferry reveals about war in South Sudan Amid constant conflict, the country’s economy can’t catch a break

"Nobody is quite sure how the ferry sank...Whatever the reason, the its husk still sits in the river near the city centre, a rusting symbol of the country’s disappointing trajectory since independence."

My piece this week is about S Sudan's lost river trade 👇

www.economist.com/middle-east-...

Since facing workers' rights lawsuits in Kenya, #Meta moved its moderation operations to a secret new location.

We found them, in Ghana, where conditions appear to be even worse.

Our joint investigation from @tbij.bsky.social and @theguardian.com out today

👇

And The Guardian reports that lawyers and content moderators are preparing to sue Meta
and its multinational contractor
— the fourth case (following three in Kenya) against Meta in Africa:

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Meta’s content moderators face worst conditions yet at secret Ghana… Hit by workers’ rights lawsuits in Kenya, the tech giant has moved its outsourcing to a top-secret new site – where life is grimmer still

Really important exposé revealing where Meta has shifted its content moderation work in Africa (Ghana); the appalling labour conditions there, and the astonishing extents the tech giant has gone to keep it all secret:

www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2025...

Why Ukraine is losing the war for African opinion It cannot match Russia’s historical ties, money or propaganda

In 2022, backing Ukraine might have been a way to curry favour with the West. Few African govts thought it was worth it then. It is even harder to see why they would think it worthwhile now.

My latest 👇

economist.com/middle-east-...

Claire Wilmot | Benefit of the Doubt If the British government is to be believed, only one civilian has been killed by its armed forces during its air war...

‘The politics of counting those killed in the war became so distasteful to the government that officials resorted to making dubious legal arguments against collecting data at all.’

Claire Wilmot on counting the civilians killed by British forces, from the blog: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/ap...

The Abiy Project: God, Power, and War in the New Ethiopia Gardner’s account of the rise of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is essential reading for those interested in understanding how individual ambition and structural factors combine to mold a leader’...

Chuffed to see that the brilliant @kopalo.bsky.social
has reviewed my book, "The Abiy Project", in this latest issue of @foreignaffairs.com. He calls it "essential reading": www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/abiy...