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Tom Gardner

@tomgardner18.bsky.social

Africa correspondent @TheEconomist Author, "The Abiy Project: God, Power and War in the New Ethiopia” Retweet ≠ endorsement / views my own Still on X (for now) @tomgardner18

4,247 Followers  |  1,000 Following  |  84 Posts  |  Joined: 15.11.2024
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Posts by Tom Gardner (@tomgardner18.bsky.social)

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South Sudan’s decrepit regime is unravelling It is taking the country down with it

"Cash reserves at the airport in Juba, the capital, are dwindling. Fuel is scarce. Licensed air-traffic controllers have left.

The alarming state of South Sudan’s only international airport is a symbol of the country’s wider malaise."

My report from South Sudan 👇

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

27.02.2026 06:35 — 👍 4    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0
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In July 2018, shortly after #Abiy became PM, #Epstein texts #Bannon:

"Note, I spoke with the president of #Ethiopia and #Eritrea , they have agreed not to do any
more work with the Chinese. ! as they now understand the trick.

In fact there is a possiblitiy of the two countries becoming one".

🫠

18.02.2026 07:54 — 👍 0    🔁 2    💬 1    📌 0
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How Africa’s hottest new museum unravelled A dispute over returning Benin bronzes to Nigeria is only part of the story

I this week's issue of @economist.com I wrote about how local politics threatens to undo Nigeria's multimillion dollar Museum of West African Art in Benin City 👇

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

15.02.2026 07:50 — 👍 4    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

New from me, feat. Prince of Darkness and his “best pal”

11.02.2026 17:11 — 👍 3    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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Ethiopia inches ever closer to war The latest flare-up in Tigray shows the risk of a regional conflagration

Tigray’s interim president described the fighting as “something resembling an all-out war”.

That outcome appears to have been averted, for now. Yet the risk of further violence remains uncomfortably high.

Our piece on the latest war-scare in Ethiopia👇

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

05.02.2026 18:18 — 👍 3    🔁 3    💬 0    📌 0

If Jeff Bezos could afford to spend $75 million on the Melania movie & $500 million for a yacht to sail off to his $55 million wedding to give his wife a $5 million ring, please don't tell me he needed to fire one-third of the Washington Post staff.

Democracy dies in oligarchy.

05.02.2026 00:16 — 👍 52445    🔁 14655    💬 1190    📌 555
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African trade has been vastly underestimated The continent’s food markets are more dynamic than commonly thought

My piece from last week's issue of @economist.com is about how one of the most widespread assumptions about trade in Africa - that African countries barely trade with each other - is, in some important ways, wrong:

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

02.02.2026 14:57 — 👍 8    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 1

The regime’s paramilitary forces are conducting a campaign of ethnic cleansing.

19.01.2026 02:08 — 👍 1858    🔁 474    💬 23    📌 7

My piece in @economist.com last week on Nigeria's emerging domestic energy champions, with reporting from Lagos 👇

19.01.2026 06:55 — 👍 5    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

Great to see our investigation in the Guardian!

Portland declined to comment on our findings.

They told the Guardian they didn't have a relationship with the subcontractor we linked them to, claimed to follow guidelines for all "social media platforms".

(Wikipedia is not a social media platform)

17.01.2026 11:03 — 👍 12    🔁 7    💬 3    📌 1
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London PR firm rewrites Wikipedia for governments and billionaires Founded by Keir Starmer’s comms chief, Portland helps rich clients ‘protect their reputation’ – with a shady, off-the-books service

Happy 25th to @wikipedia.org, one of the great wonders of the digital world!

While #Wikipedia's volunteers are good at disrupting influence ops, PR firms still try to manipulate pages for the rich & powerful.

My latest, for @tbij.bsky.social 🧵

www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2026...

15.01.2026 12:37 — 👍 6    🔁 5    💬 1    📌 0

Marco Rubio is reportedly saying Maduro will stand trial in US courts.

Which means it’s now the US administration’s position that US courts can hold foreign presidents, but not the US president, accountable for crimes.

03.01.2026 10:52 — 👍 59776    🔁 20301    💬 1562    📌 1137
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Seen from above, el-Fasher is a ghost town Satellite imagery reveals how North Darfur’s capital has been abandoned after its fall

Today the city appears eerily silent. Seen from the sky, once bustling markets are empty and overgrown with vegetation. The streets are devoid of traffic, except for vehicles known to be used by the RSF. Water points, too, appear deserted:

www.economist.com/interactive/...

18.12.2025 19:00 — 👍 4    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 1
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At least 60,000 murdered in Sudanese city, which resembles ‘a slaughterhouse’ Satellite evidence shows extent of paramilitary massacre in El Fasher

So, El Fasher looks like one of the worst single event atrocities to happen this century so far, but the evidence has come in such a trickle it seems to only now be getting verified

13.12.2025 03:50 — 👍 2096    🔁 1169    💬 39    📌 135
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Nigeria’s kidnapping crisis Donald Trump’s ire has drawn attention to appalling security failures

“They packed our children like cows into the bush,” says Chukwuelota Mmadubueze, whose son was 1 of 300 abducted from his school in north-west Nigeria last month.

My latest, on Nigeria's kidnapping epidemic (filling in for @oreogunb.bsky.social while she's away) 👇

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

12.12.2025 05:35 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Mormonism’s surprising boom in Africa The American sect has come a long way from being “the white people’s church”

My piece in this week's issue looks at the rapid rise of Mormonism in Africa, where the small but influential American sect is building temples and impacting politics from Sierra Leone to Ghana to Kenya 👇

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

02.12.2025 06:55 — 👍 2    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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I guest wrote this week's War Room, our defence newsetter, on the lessons for the Horn of Africa from Europe, 1914 👇

view.e.economist.com?qs=df4e468c9...

01.12.2025 20:36 — 👍 5    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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Armed men take power in Guinea-Bissau, again But not everyone is convinced the latest putsch is a real one

"A putsch favouring the government would be unusual. But unusual things happen in Guinea-Bissau."

My latest 👇

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

27.11.2025 14:18 — 👍 6    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0
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Erik Prince, America’s most notorious mercenary, spies opportunity in chaos The return of the Blackwater founder is a sign of the times

From Ukraine to Haiti to Congo, Erik Prince’s mercenary services are everywhere, and his worldview is more influential among America’s powerholders

22.11.2025 08:30 — 👍 22    🔁 10    💬 1    📌 4
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A fuel blockade shows the frightening power of Mali’s jihadists But fears of a terrorist takeover are overblown

"Contrary to some recent news headlines,JNIM, the Sahel’s pre-eminent jihadist group, is not about to follow in the footsteps of jihadists in Afghanistan and Syria and seize power in the capital."

My latest

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

21.11.2025 06:04 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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I am moving to Dubai because England is so dangerous. www.ft.com/content/9bf6...

19.11.2025 14:03 — 👍 519    🔁 154    💬 22    📌 3
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How to avoid Africa’s next war Pressure from America and its allies can prevent a return to fighting

Three years ago one of the deadliest conflicts of the 21st century ended when Ethiopia’s government struck a peace deal with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. Now it is unravelling

16.11.2025 06:40 — 👍 6    🔁 7    💬 1    📌 0
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Ethiopia is perilously close to another war Conflict in Tigray could balloon into a regional conflagration

"But a covert proxy war between Ethiopia, Eritrea and their allies has, in effect, already begun. It needs worryingly little to explode into the open."

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

13.11.2025 17:44 — 👍 12    🔁 4    💬 0    📌 0
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How to avoid Africa’s next war Pressure from America and its allies can prevent a return to fighting

One feature is the role of outside powers, including some Gulf states, which exert influence over their proxies. The best chance for de-escalation lies with America and these outside powers, who must push their allies to stop fighting and start talking again.

www.economist.com/leaders/2025...

13.11.2025 17:43 — 👍 4    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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When Tigray became a ‘wild west’ of illegal gold mining, Canadian firms staked a claim A postwar gold rush in Ethiopia razed the landscape and sowed seeds for conflict. The Globe looks into Canadian-licensed sites at the heart of it, and their ties to Beijing

A groundbreaking, eye-opening, and much needed investigation into Tigray's postwar goldrush: one of the most overlooked causes of the region's calamitous law and order breakdown—and its slide back to war.

www.theglobeandmail.com/world/articl...

13.11.2025 13:11 — 👍 7    🔁 4    💬 0    📌 0

a must-read on this topic

07.11.2025 07:49 — 👍 3    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0
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The ‘Wolqayt question’ from c. 2015 to the Tigray war: agrarian claims in Amhara nationalism The emergence of Amhara nationalism as a central political trend in Ethiopia can be dated to 2016. It soon gained considerable audience within the Amhara region and beyond. This article analyses a ...

The ‘Wolqayt question’ from c. 2015 to the Tigray war: agrarian claims in Amhara nationalism

Latest articles in JEAS:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

07.11.2025 07:41 — 👍 3    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 1
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Will anything—or anyone—stop the slaughter in Sudan? As a killing spree unfolds in Darfur, an end to the civil war looks remote

The RSF has accepted the US proposal for a "humanitarian truce" since this went to press, but the fundamentals remain unchanged - both sides are reluctant to move seriously to talks, and outside pressure on them -- and their foreign backers -- remains insufficient.

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

06.11.2025 17:55 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0