By Mefkereseb G. Hailu (PhD)

Editorial Forward

Part 2 of Mefkereseb G. Hailu’s four-part series on the Abraham Accords arrives at a geopolitical moment that demands neither theological certainty nor nationalist bombast, but rather cold strategic assessment. The article’s central proposition is deceptively simple: permissive disorder the condition in which great powers retreat and middle powers compete without constraint has transformed the Red Sea corridor into a contested zone where Ethiopia’s four survival interests (GERD, maritime sovereignty, economic development, and internal unity) are simultaneously elevated in strategic value and endangered by competitive forces beyond Addis Ababa’s control.

The analysis contained here is not a brief for any political faction, nor a rejoinder to another editorial position. It is an effort to illuminate what is actually happening on the ground: the movement of military infrastructure, the manipulation of recognition as a corridor instrument, the fracturing of the Saudi–UAE partnership, and the acceleration of Sudan and Yemen as transmission belts for Middle Eastern rivalry into Horn politics. The author assembles the evidence with a clarity that should trouble anyone whose primary concern is Ethiopian sovereignty and institutional coherence.

Most significantly, the work articulates what we have long argued in these pages: that Ethiopia’s maritime claim to the Doumeira–Beilul coastline is not an emotional or nationalist indulgence. It is a matter of self–defence. A nation of 130 million cannot afford to permit its most strategically sensitive frontier to remain under the control of a garrison state whose survival depends on external patrons. Eritrea’s weakness is not a reason for Ethiopian complacency; it is a launching pad that any hostile power, Egypt, any actor seeking a platform to threaten GERD, can exploit at will.

This is what institutional credibility looks like in a competitive geopolitical system. It is not negotiable with ethnic coalitions or factional bargaining. The Tribune publishes this work because it advances the conversation we must be having: how does a unified Ethiopia navigate a disorder not of its making?

Synopsis: Permissive Disorder & the Corridor War

I. The Geopolitical Architecture Shifts

The Abraham Accords, validated by Operation Epic Fury (the February 2026 US–Israeli campaign that degraded Iran’s military capacity), have produced a structural reordering of the Horn’s geopolitical landscape. This is not a settled hierarchy but a competitive system in which middle powers exploit great-power distraction to advance their positions through ports, recognition diplomacy, security outsourcing, and sub-state partnerships.

Permissive disorder operates as both opportunity and trap. It widens the menu of external partners and corridor options; it also raises the cost of miscalculation, because no great-power referee exists to mediate escalation. The United States has not abandoned the Horn; it has been restructured through the convergent alignment, producing a partisan presence that amplifies rather than moderates competition. Europe is absent, and Russia and China offer optionality without security guarantees. In this environment, institutional coherence becomes the premium asset.

II. Two Blocs & the Recognition Weapon

The competitive structure is characterised as overlapping blocs: the convergent alignment (Israel–UAE–India–Ethiopia, operationalised through Somaliland) and the balancing coalition (Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Somalia’s federal government, Eritrea). These are not fixed; they are transactional, mediated through commercial entities and security contractors rather than formal treaties.

Israel’s recognition of Somaliland (December 2025) demonstrates that recognition has become a policy tool within this architecture—one that re-prices risk and re-ranks partners. For Ethiopia, this precedent is double-edged: it validates the principle of boundary revision in the Horn and creates a framework Ethiopia can invoke for its own maritime claim, while potentially internationalising disputes and deepening proxy alignment logic.

III. Sudan & Yemen as Transmission Belts

Sudan and Yemen are not peripheral. They function as transmission belts through which Middle Eastern competition propagates into Horn corridor politics. Sudan’s civil war demonstrates what happens when a state fragments under permissive disorder: each faction attracts a different external patron, corridor assets become prizes in a proxy war, and state capacity evaporates. Yemen’s Houthi campaign directly determines shipping economics and the strategic salience of African alternatives (Berbera, Assab, Lamu).

For Ethiopia, this is not theoretical. Higher insurance premiums, longer routing, and supply-chain delays compress fiscal space and raise the urgency of corridor diversification. The Berbera option (through the Somaliland MoU) and the Assab option (through sovereign coastline recovery) are not merely desirable; they are necessitated by a Red Sea security environment rendered structurally unstable.

IV. Eritrea: The Launching-Pad Thesis

Eritrea occupies a position analytically distinct from any other Horn actor. It is not a competitor; it is a vulnerability node—a weak state whose weakness makes it a threat to Ethiopian sovereignty. With a population below four million, an economy among the least productive in Africa, and a political system dependent entirely on the narrative of permanent threat from Ethiopia, Eritrea is a launching pad that any hostile power can lease, co-opt, or exploit.

Egypt’s reported interest in establishing military presence on the Eritrean coast illustrates the threat directly. An Egyptian naval or air facility at Assab, positioned within approximately 500 kilometres of GERD, would place precision-guided munitions and cruise missiles within striking range of Ethiopia’s most consequential infrastructure project. This is why sovereign sea access is, for Ethiopia, a matter of self-defence before it is a matter of economics.

V. The Four Interests Under Pressure

Ethiopia’s four singular interests—GERD, Red Sea sovereignty, economic development, and internal unity—provide the analytical framework. GERD benefits from the alignment of winners, but it is not merely a foreign-policy asset; it is the engine of Ethiopia’s structural transformation. Red Sea sovereignty is the self-defence imperative: the 180–200 kilometres of coastline from Doumeira to Beilul must be recovered. Economic development requires converting the mutual economic dividend into tangible outcomes: agri-industrial processing, manufacturing, infrastructure, technology education.

Internal unity is the binding constraint on all three. Permissive disorder does not create Ethiopia’s ethnic fractures, but it amplifies them catastrophically. When external coalitions compete, they prefer counterparties who can deliver concessions quickly; this selects for elite bargaining and reinforces extraction unless institutions impose transparency. If Ethiopia cannot present a unified position at the bargaining table, it cannot protect GERD, cannot recover its coastline, and cannot absorb the investment that the alignment of winners offers.

VI. Fragmentation as Defeat

The emerging geopolitical architecture does not mechanically determine Ethiopia’s fate; it raises the payoff to cohesion and the cost of fragmentation. If Ethiopia fragments, each successor entity inherits weaker corridor bargaining power, higher transaction costs, and higher susceptibility to patronage capture. Eritrea’s weakness becomes an invitation to hostile powers. GERD becomes a contested asset. The coastline remains lost. The alignment of winners becomes a patron–client trap rather than a partnership of equals. Conversely, a unified Ethiopia—governed through civic institutions rather than ethnic bargaining—can protect GERD, recover its coastline, absorb investment at scale, and function as the dominant power in the Horn–Red Sea region that its demography, geography, and economic trajectory destine it to become.

Readers are encouraged to access and study the full PDF of the article at the following link.

Part 3 examines the internal dynamics that make institutional coherence possible or impossible.

Author: Mefkereseb G. Hailu (PhD)
Date: 19 April 2026
Series: The Abraham Accords — Part 2 of 4
Topic: Competition and Permissive Disorder in the Gulf–Red Sea–Hor

About Post Author

Ethiopian Tribune editor

editor@ethiopiantribune.com

https://ethiopiantribune.com

Happy

0 0 %

Sad

0 0 %

Excited

0 0 %

Sleepy

0 0 %

Angry

0 0 %

Surprise

0 0 %

How Ponzi schemes have evolved from Wall Street to Addis Ababa and why Ethiopia is their latest frontier.

By E Frashie Ethiopian Tribune columnist

It always begins with a promise. The details vary electric vehicles in Addis Ababa, cryptocurrency tokens in Dubai, certificates of deposit in the Caribbean but the underlying architecture is identical. You give someone your money. They give it, quietly, to the person before you. They pay you from someone else’s deposit. And for a while, sometimes a long while, everyone appears to be getting rich.

This is the Ponzi scheme: the most durable financial fraud in human history, named after Charles Ponzi, a Boston-based Italian immigrant who in 1920 raised $15 million in eight months by promising 50 per cent returns in 45 days. The promise was impossible. The returns were paid entirely from incoming investors’ capital. When the flow of new money slowed, the structure collapsed overnight, ruining thousands. Ponzi went to prison. His name entered the dictionary.

More than a century later, the fraud he popularised, though did not invent, continues to devastate ordinary people on every continent. Its latest Ethiopian incarnation, the case of Fintech Investment PLC and its chief executive Daniel Yohannes, who now faces 19 counts before the Federal High Court’s Lideta Branch, is in many respects a textbook example. The vehicle, the promise, and the medium have been modernised. The logic has not changed at all.

WHAT A PONZI SCHEME ACTUALLY IS

The mechanics deserve plain statement, because they are simpler than the marketing around them. A Ponzi scheme is an investment fraud in which existing investors are paid using funds collected from new investors, rather than from genuine business profit or productive activity. There are no trades, no returns, no underlying assets generating value. There is only the movement of money from later investors to earlier ones, with the operator extracting a portion at each stage.

Four structural elements are required for the scheme to function. First, a credible promise: returns attractive enough to recruit but not so fantastic as to immediately trigger suspicion. Second, early payouts: a critical phase in which the first cohort genuinely receives money, generating word-of-mouth and social proof. Third, a legitimacy facade: branding, documentation, offices, media presence, and endorsements that simulate the appearance of a functioning enterprise. Fourth, a recruitment engine: the scheme must continuously attract new capital to service existing obligations, whether through social networks, community groups, professional associations, or digital platforms.

The outcome is always the same. When recruitment slows, through market saturation, regulatory pressure, or loss of confidence incoming funds can no longer cover outgoing obligations. The operator withdraws what capital remains. The most recent investors lose everything. This conclusion is not a risk; it is a mathematical certainty. The only variable is timing.

“There is no investment that can sustainably pay more than it earns. When someone tells you otherwise, the only question is who will pay for your credulity and how long before they run out of new people to ask.”

What makes Ponzi schemes so persistent is not their sophistication but their adaptability. Every era of financial innovation and every new communications technology has produced a fresh variant. The digital age, and the age of cryptocurrency in particular, has not eliminated this form of fraud. It has industrialised it.

THE GLOBAL RECORD

The modern history of large-scale Ponzi fraud begins, definitionally, with Bernie Madoff. For nearly four decades, Madoff operated what investigators concluded was a $20 billion scheme concealed behind the respectable façade of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC on Wall Street. He fabricated every trade, every statement, and every declared return. He was arrested in December 2008 when the financial crisis triggered redemption requests he could not honour. Sentenced to 150 years in prison, he died incarcerated in 2021. His case established the template: the longer a scheme runs without detection, the larger the losses at collapse, because the pyramid of obligation grows with every passing month.

Allen Stanford operated a Caribbean variant that devastated ordinary investors across Latin America. Stanford International Bank, based in Antigua, raised $7 billion from more than 30,000 investors, many of them in Venezuela, Mexico, Ecuador, and Colombia, through fraudulent certificates of deposit bearing implausibly high interest rates. The offshore setting lent the scheme an air of sophistication. Stanford was sentenced to 110 years in federal prison in 2012.

MMM Global, the Russian pyramid scheme revived by Sergei Mavrodi and relaunched internationally in 2011, proved devastatingly effective across sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Crucially, Mavrodi did not call it an investment. He rebranded it as a mutual aid network, telling participants they were simply helping each other a framing that disarmed financial scepticism by appealing instead to community solidarity. In Nigeria alone, more than three million subscribers registered. When the scheme froze accounts in December 2016, losses were estimated at $50 million in that country alone. Similar collapses followed in Ghana, Kenya, Zimbabwe, South Africa, India, and China. The human cost extended beyond money: some investors, confronted with frozen accounts and demands for additional deposits before release of funds, took their own lives. The collapse did not deter imitation; it accelerated it. Loom, Twinkas, and MBA Forex followed in rapid succession.

OneCoin, founded by the Bulgarian national Ruja Ignatova, is the most geographically dispersed cryptocurrency fraud in history. Marketed across 175 countries as a superior alternative to Bitcoin the so-called “Cryptoqueen” promoted it with the slogan “Bitcoin Killer” OneCoin raised an estimated $5.8 billion between 2014 and 2019. There was no blockchain. Every coin sold was worthless. Ignatova disappeared before prosecution, was placed on both the Europol and FBI most-wanted lists with a €5 million reward, and has not been found. Her co-founder Sebastian Greenwood was sentenced to 20 years in a United States federal prison in 2023.

Bitconnect demonstrated that a Ponzi scheme need not have a fixed headquarters or a traceable founder. Entirely digital, it operated through an international network of YouTube promoters, WhatsApp groups, and social media communities stretching from the United States to India, Brazil, and sub-Saharan Africa. It promised monthly returns of 40 per cent. At its peak its market capitalisation reached $2.6 billion. When it collapsed in early 2018, the token fell from $500 to effectively zero within days.

Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX, the defining financial fraud of the current decade, operated not as a marginal platform but as the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange, a fixture of congressional testimony and mainstream financial media. Prosecutors established that Bankman-Fried had diverted customer funds from FTX to Alameda Research, his private hedge fund, to finance speculative trades, political donations, and luxury properties. The exchange presented itself publicly as a model of responsible crypto management. When confidence broke in November 2022, the entire structure collapsed in under a week. Bankman-Fried was convicted on all seven counts and sentenced in March 2024 to 25 years in prison, with a forfeiture of $11 billion. He was, as one prosecutor put it, running “a house of cards on a foundation of deceit.”

The pattern across all these cases is striking in its consistency: an implausible but not outrageous promise; early payouts that generated credibility through genuine recipients; a coordinated legitimacy campaign through media and professional endorsements; and the systematic weaponisation of trust networks, whether family groups, religious communities, or social media followings, to sustain recruitment.

ETHIOPIA’S EXPANDING VULNERABILITY AND THE FINTECH INVESTMENT CASE

Ethiopia is not an isolated case, but the specific conditions of this moment make it a particularly hospitable environment for this type of fraud. Rapid digital adoption, ambitious government-backed financial inclusion programmes, a young and aspirational urban population, limited public financial literacy, and a regulatory framework that has not kept pace with the speed of fintech expansion these are precisely the conditions that Ponzi operators seek. They did not create these conditions; they exploit them.

On 27 March 2026, federal prosecutors charged Daniel Yohannes, manager of Fintech Investment PLC, with 19 counts before the Federal High Court’s Lideta Branch. The charges include fraud, conspiracy, and violations of Ethiopia’s computer crime laws. The alleged scheme drew more than 600 million birr from investors through promises to supply electric vehicles that were, in the main, never delivered.

The framing was astute. Electric vehicles are a genuine policy priority in Ethiopia, and presenting the investment as participation in the modernisation of the country’s transport sector conferred an air of national purpose. Investors were told they could acquire vehicles on favourable credit terms, with the company claiming partnerships with international manufacturers and local insurers. The entry cost was substantial: a 50 per cent deposit on vehicles priced at approximately 1.9 million birr, plus tax and licensing charges, bringing the total per-participant commitment to over 1.36 million birr.

To sustain credibility during the recruitment phase, prosecutors allege that the defendants circulated images and videos of vehicle handovers at prominent locations across Addis Ababa, and claimed that hundreds of cars had already been delivered with further shipments imminent. Investigators found that approximately 100 vehicles were in fact distributed the majority to individuals connected to the scheme itself. This is a standard technique: a small number of genuine deliveries generates the testimonial evidence that powers the next wave of recruitment.

The current operation was not Fintech Investment PLC’s first venture of this kind. Prosecutors draw a direct line to Hello Taxi and Hello Car, an earlier programme launched in 2021 that similarly promised vehicles on credit. More than 5,000 people registered. Significant funds were collected. Almost no vehicles were delivered before the programme ceased operations.

“More than 5,000 families registered with Hello Taxi. Many were teachers, civil servants, small traders people who committed years of careful savings to a promise that was never going to be kept.”

What distinguishes this case from older-generation Ethiopian fraud is its digital architecture. The prosecution has described the operation as a form of organised white-collar crime adapted to digital platforms, one that made systematic use of computer systems to disseminate misleading information and conceal the identities of its operators. The recruitment engine relied heavily on social media promotion and, critically, on endorsements by public figures. PR companies, influencers, and individuals in or near public office have all been drawn into the investigation.

This is not accidental. The professionalisation of the legitimacy-building phase the period in which a scheme must persuade potential investors that the opportunity is real before the weight of recruitment tips the structure into collapse, is one of the most significant evolutions in Ponzi design over the past decade. In an earlier era this required printed prospectuses and in-person seminars. Digital platforms have reduced the cost of manufactured credibility to near zero. A series of well-produced testimonial videos, a social media account with substantial follower counts, and an endorsement from a recognisable face can unlock access to populations that would have been unreachable a generation ago. The investors who watched footage of a car being handed over at a prominent Addis Ababa location and concluded that something real was happening were not naive; they were deceived by a deliberately constructed fiction.

Public figures who endorse financial products bear a particular responsibility, whether or not they are legally complicit in what follows. Regulatory bodies in Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa have begun issuing formal guidance on influencer liability in financial promotions. Ethiopia’s relevant authorities should move in the same direction, and without delay.

WHAT MUST FOLLOW

The arrest and charging of Daniel Yohannes is a necessary step. It is emphatically not a sufficient one. For this prosecution to serve as genuine deterrence, rather than a singular event in an unbroken pattern of impunity, several things must follow.

The charge sheet references accomplices, coordinated networks, and individuals previously implicated in fraud. All participants in the scheme, lawyers, accountants, marketing professionals, influencers, and any regulatory contacts who may have facilitated or ignored warning signs must face commensurate scrutiny. Ponzi schemes do not operate in isolation. Prosecuting only their public face leaves the infrastructure intact for the next iteration.

More than 5,000 families registered under the Hello Taxi and Hello Car programmes alone. Their claims must be assessed systematically and restitution pursued wherever assets can be traced and recovered. Ethiopia’s financial regulators must also develop enforceable frameworks for digital investment platforms: mandatory registration, disclosure requirements, and clear liability provisions for promoters and endorsers. The present environment allows fraudsters to exploit the gap between the pace of fintech innovation and the pace of regulatory response — a gap that will widen unless deliberate action is taken to close it.

And finally: public financial education. The most durable protection against this class of fraud is an investing public that can recognise its warning signs guaranteed high returns, opaque business models, heavy reliance on recruitment, and a reluctance to provide clear documentation. That education cannot arrive after the schemes do. It must be embedded in schools, in community institutions, and in the public discourse now.

Charles Ponzi died in poverty in Brazil in 1949, deported and forgotten. Bernie Madoff died in a federal prison medical centre in 2021. Allen Stanford is serving 110 years. Sam Bankman-Fried is serving 25. The perpetrators of these schemes, when caught, tend to be caught thoroughly.

The problem has never been that the fraudsters escape indefinitely. The problem is the interval, the months or years during which ordinary people hand over ordinary savings in exchange for extraordinary promises, and the machinery of false credibility keeps turning. The problem is the 5,000 families who registered with Hello Taxi. The problem is the three million Nigerians who trusted MMM. The problem is every investor who watched a social media video and reasonably concluded that something real was being delivered.

The Ethiopian Tribune will continue to report on the Fintech Investment case as it proceeds through the Federal High Court. We will cover the evidence presented, the witnesses called, the defendants still at large, and the regulatory response or lack of one. The public interest in this case extends far beyond any single courtroom.

The promise of effortless returns is as old as money itself. What changes is the medium. What never changes is the mathematics.

The trial of Daniel Yohannes and associated defendants is ongoing before the Federal High Court, Lideta Branch, Addis Ababa. The Ethiopian Tribune will publish continuing coverage as proceedings develop.

About Post Author

Ethiopian Tribune editor

editor@ethiopiantribune.com

https://ethiopiantribune.com

Happy

0 0 %

Sad

0 0 %

Excited

0 0 %

Sleepy

0 0 %

Angry

0 0 %

Surprise

0 0 %

Sovereignty, Development, and Democratic Unity in the Age of Transactional Geopolitics

By Mefkereseb G. Hailu (PhD)

March 23, 2026

EDITOR’S FORWARD

In moments when a nation stands at the hinge of history, clarity becomes a civic duty. Dr. Mefkereseb G. Hailu’s sweeping and meticulously argued essay, “The Spirit of Adwa Must Carry Ethiopia Through: GERD and the Red Sea,” arrives precisely at such a moment when Ethiopia’s sovereignty, developmental trajectory, and democratic future are being tested simultaneously at home and abroad.

From its opening pages, the article insists on a truth too often neglected in elite political discourse: Ethiopia’s future belongs to its young. As the author writes, “listen to the younger generation the nation is theirs to inherit.” With nearly 65% of Ethiopians under thirty, this is not a rhetorical flourish but a demographic fact that demands institutional response. Dr. Hailu’s insistence that Gen‑Z and Gen‑α must not merely be consulted but empowered is one of the most consequential interventions in contemporary Ethiopian political thought.

Yet this work is not a generational manifesto alone. It is a panoramic examination of the forces shaping Ethiopia’s sovereignty from the self-financed triumph of GERD, described as “a national narrative converted into steel and megawatts,” to the long arc of geopolitical engineering that rendered Ethiopia landlocked in 1993. The author does not shy away from naming the historical actors involved, nor from articulating Ethiopia’s legitimate and peaceful claim to restored Red Sea access.

Crucially, the article refuses the false binary that has long distorted Ethiopia’s public sphere: that one must choose between defending national sovereignty and demanding democratic accountability. Dr. Hailu argues instead that sovereignty without democracy is brittle, and democracy without sovereignty is hollow. As he notes, “The conclusion… is democratic accountability through democratic institutions… not the fragmentation of Ethiopia’s sovereign position.”

This is a work of scholarship, but also of civic courage. It confronts the country’s internal fractures ethnic violence, contested territories, democratic regression without surrendering to fatalism or cynicism. It situates Ethiopia’s challenges within global patterns of coercive mediation, transactional geopolitics, and great‑power opportunism. And it offers a strategic doctrine rooted in Adwa: principled resistance, coalition-building, technological ambition, and the disciplined use of national power.

Above all, this article is a call to responsibility directed at leaders, institutions, and especially the young Ethiopians who will live longest with the consequences of today’s decisions. As Dr. Hailu writes in one of the essay’s most resonant lines, “Stand with Ethiopia on GERD. Stand with Ethiopia on the Red Sea… and ensure that it is the youngest Ethiopians who hold the pen—because it is their story, and it always was.”

The Ethiopian Tribune is proud to present this work. It is not merely an article; it is an invitation to think, to argue, to build and to imagine Ethiopia not as a nation trapped by its past, but as one propelled by its youth, its ingenuity, and its unbroken sovereign will.

The Editorial Board
The Ethiopian Tribune

Readers are encouraged to access and study the full PDF of the article at the following link.

About Post Author

Ethiopian Tribune editor

editor@ethiopiantribune.com

https://ethiopiantribune.com

Happy

0 0 %

Sad

0 0 %

Excited

0 0 %

Sleepy

1 100 %

Angry

0 0 %

Surprise

0 0 %

ትንታኔ፦ የኢትዮጵያ ትሪቢዩን የፖለቲካ እና የኢኮኖሚ ጉዳዮች ክፍል

መጋቢት 16 ቀን 2018 ዓ.ም (ማርች 25፣ 2026)

በዓለም አቀፍ የቴክኖሎጂ ዘርፍ ከፍተኛ ድንጋጤን በፈጠረ ውሳኔ፣ በሎስ አንጀለስ የሚገኝ የዳኞች ቡድን በቴክኖሎጂ ግዙፎቹ ሜታ (Meta) እና ጎግል (Google) ላይ ከዚህ ቀደም ታይቶ የማይታወቅ የሽንፈት ውሳኔ አስተላልፏል። ይህ ብይን የማህበራዊ ሚዲያ ኩባንያዎች “ሆን ተብሎ ለተቀነባበረ የዲጂታል ሱሰኝነት” በሕግ ተጠያቂ የተደረጉበት የመጀመሪያው አጋጣሚ ነው። የሕግ ባለሙያዎች እንደሚሉት ከሆነ፣ ይህ ውሳኔ እንደ ኢትዮጵያ ባሉ በማደግ ላይ ባሉ አገራት የሚገኙ በሚሊዮን የሚቆጠሩ ወጣት ተጠቃሚዎችን ጨምሮ፣ መላውን የዲጂታል ዓለም ገጽታ መሠረታዊ በሆነ መልኩ ሊቀይረው ይችላል።

የፍርዱ ይዘት

ሳምንታት ለፈጀው ከፍተኛ የምስክርነት ቃል መስማት ሂደት በኋላ፣ የዳኞች ቡድኑ ሜታ (የኢንስታግራም፣ ፌስቡክ እና ዋትስአፕ እናት ኩባንያ) እና ጎግል (የዩቲዩብ ባለቤት) ሆን ብለው ተጠቃሚን ሱሰኛ የሚያደርጉ የመገናኛ መድረኮችን ቀርፀዋል የሚል መደምደሚያ ላይ ደርሷል። ዳኞቹ እነዚህ የዲጂታል መድረኮች አወቃቀር በሕግ ሰነዶች ላይ ‘ኬሊ’ ተብላ በተጠቀሰችው የ20 ዓመት ወጣት የአእምሮ ጤና ላይ ቀጥተኛ ጉዳት ማድረሳቸውን አረጋግጠዋል።

የከሳሿ የሕግ ባለሙያዎች እንደ “infinite scrolling” (ገደብ የለሽ የመረጃ ፍሰት) እና የፍላጎት ስልተ-ቀመሮች (algorithms) በአጋጣሚ የተፈጠሩ ሳይሆኑ፣ የሕፃናትን ደህንነት መሥዋዕት በማድረግ ተጠቃሚዎችን ለረጅም ሰዓት ለማቆየት ታስበው የተሰሩ መሆናቸውን በማስረጃ አቅርበው ተከራክረዋል።

የኩባንያዎቹ መከላከያ ውድቅ መደረግ

የሜታ ጠበቆች ጉዳዩን እንደ ግል ችግር በመፈረጅ ኩባንያውን ከተጠያቂነት ለማዳን ጥረት አድርገው ነበር። ኬሊ በግል ሕይወቷ መከራ ቢደርስባትም፣ ኢንስታግራምን መጠቀምዋ ለሥነ-ልቦና ቀውሷ መንስኤ እንዳልሆነ ወይም “ጉልህ አስተዋጽኦ” እንዳልነበረው ተከራክረዋል።

ሆኖም ዳኞቹ በዚህ መከላከያ አልተረቱም። ይልቁንም ኩባንያዎቹ ራሳቸው ያደረጓቸውን የውስጥ ጥናቶች ጨምሮ፣ እነዚህ መድረኮች ልክ እንደ ቁማር የአንጎልን የደስታ ስሜት (dopamine) ቀስቃሽ በሆነ መልኩ መገንባታቸውን የሚያሳዩ ማስረጃዎችን በመጥቀስ ውሳኔያቸውን አጽንተዋል።

በዛሬው ዕለት በዓለም አቀፍ የቴክኖሎጂ ኢንደስትሪ ላይ እንደ መብረቅ የተሰማው የሎስ አንጀለስ ፍርድ ቤት ውሳኔ፣ ሜታ እና ጎግልን ብቻ ሳይሆን እንደ ቲክቶክ (TikTok) ያሉ ሌሎች ግዙፍ መድረኮችንም ስጋት ላይ ጥሏል። የ20 ዓመቷን ኬሊን የካሳ ጥያቄ መሠረት በማድረግ የተሰጠው ይህ “ታሪካዊ” ብይን፣ የቴክኖሎጂ ኩባንያዎች ለተጠቃሚዎቻቸው የአእምሮ ጤና ያላቸውን የሕግ ተጠያቂነት አዲስ ምዕራፍ ከፍቷል።

የብይኑ መሠረት እና የቲክቶክ ስጋት
ምንም እንኳን የዚህኛው ክስ ትኩረት በሜታ (ኢንስታግራም) እና ጎግል (ዩቲዩብ) ላይ ቢሆንም፣ የፍርዱ መሠረታዊ ምክንያት ግን እንደ ቲክቶክ ያሉ መድረኮችን በቀጥታ የሚነካ ነው። ዳኞቹ ኩባንያዎቹን ጥፋተኛ ያደረጓቸው በሚከተሉት ነጥቦች ነው፦

የአልጎሪዝም አወቃቀር፦ ተጠቃሚው ሳያስበው ለሰዓታት እንዲቆይ የሚያደርጉ “ሱስ አስያዥ” ስልተ-ቀመሮች።ሆን ተብሎ የተሰሩ ዲዛይኖች፦ ልክ እንደ ቲክቶክ “For You Page” ሁሉ፣ ወጣቶችን ከእውነታው ዓለም የሚነጥሉ ማራኪ ግን ጎጂ ይዘቶችን የሚያስቀድሙ አሰራሮች።
የሕግ ባለሙያዎች እንደሚሉት፣ ቲክቶክ በአሁኑ ወቅት በአሜሪካ እና በአውሮፓ መሰል ክሶች እየቀረቡበት በመሆኑ፣ ይህ የሜታ እና ጎግል መሸነፍ ለቲክቶክም “የመጨረሻው ማስጠንቀቂያ” ተደርጎ ተወስዷል።

“የዲጂታል መድኃኒት” ተጠያቂነት

“ይህ ውሳኔ በኢትዮጵያ ያሉ ወላጆች እና ተቆጣጣሪ አካላት የማህበራዊ ሚዲያ አጠቃቀምን እንደ ቀላል መዝናኛ ብቻ ሳይሆን፣ ከፍተኛ ጥንቃቄ እንደሚሻ ‘ምርት’ እንዲመለከቱት ያደርጋል።”

የሜታ ጠበቆች “ኢንስታግራም ለኬሊ ችግር መንስኤ አይደለም” ብለው ቢከራከሩም፣ የሎስ አንጀለሱ ውሳኔ ግን የቴክኖሎጂው ዲዛይን ራሱ “መርዝ” ሊሆን እንደሚችል አረጋግጧል።

ቀጣዩ እርምጃ ምን ሊሆን ይችላል?
ይህ ብይን በመቶዎች ለሚቆጠሩ ተመሳሳይ ክሶች መንገድ ከፋች በመሆኑ፣ ወደፊት ኩባንያዎቹ የሚከተሉትን ለውጦች እንዲያደርጉ ሊገደዱ ይችላሉ፦

• ለታዳጊዎች የሚቀርቡ “ሱስ አስያዥ” ባህሪያትን መቀነስ።
• በየቀኑ የሚፈቀደውን የሰዓት ገደብ ማጥበቅ።
• ለደረሱ ጉዳቶች በቢሊዮን የሚቆጠር ዶላር ካሳ መክፈል።

በሎስ አንጀለስ ፍርድ ቤት በሜታ እና ጎግል ላይ የተሰጠው ውሳኔ ለኢትዮጵያ ትልቅ ደወል ነው። ሆኖም ለኢትዮጵያ ጉዳዩ ይበልጥ ውስብስብ የሚሆነው፣ እነዚህ “ሱስ አስያዥ” የተባሉ ቴክኖሎጂዎች በራሱ በመንግሥት እና በከፍተኛ አመራሮች ዘንድ እንደ ዋነኛ የሥራ እና የፕሮፓጋንዳ መሣሪያ በመወሰዳቸው ነው።

የመንግሥት “ዲጂታል አባዜ” እና የተጋላጭነት ስጋት

ጠቅላይ ሚኒስትር ዐቢይ አሕመድን ጨምሮ ከፍተኛ የመንግሥት ባለሥልጣናት አዳዲስ የቴክኖሎጂ ውጤቶችን (እንደ ቲክቶክ፣ ኤክስ እና ፌስቡክ) በከፍተኛ ሁኔታ መጠቀማቸው ይታወቃል። መንግሥት “ዲጂታል ኢትዮጵያ 2025” በሚል መሪ ቃል ዜጎች ወደ ቴክኖሎጂው እንዲገቡ እያበረታታ ባለበት በዚህ ወቅት፣ የቴክኖሎጂው “አዳኝ” (Predatory) ባህሪ ግን ችላ ተብሏል።

ተባባሪነት ወይስ አጠቃቀም?

መንግሥት እነዚህን መድረኮች ለፖለቲካዊ መልዕክት ማስተላለፊያነት ሲጠቀም፣ ሳያውቀው ወጣቱ ትውልድ በእነዚህ “ሱስ አስያዥ” ስልተ-ቀመሮች (Algorithms) ውስጥ እንዲዘፈቅ በር ይከፍታል። ይህም መንግሥትን የቴክኖሎጂ ኩባንያዎቹ “ያልተፈረመ ስምምነት” ተባባሪ ያደርገዋል።

የፖለቲካ ጉዳት፦ “የአልጎሪዝም ፖለቲካ” እና አለመረጋጋት
በአሜሪካ የተሰጠው ብይን እንደሚያሳየው፣ እነዚህ መድረኮች የተሰሩት ሰውን ስሜታዊ በማድረግ ረጅም ሰዓት እንዲቆይ ነው። በኢትዮጵያ ፖለቲካ ውስጥ ይህ ትልቅ አደጋ አለው፦

የሐሰት መረጃ መስፋፋት፦ ስልተ-ቀመሮቹ (Algorithms) ይበልጥ አነጋጋሪ እና ስሜት ቀስቃሽ የሆኑ የጥላቻ ንግግሮችን እና የሐሰት ወሬዎችን ለተጠቃሚው በማቅረብ ሱስ ያስይዛሉ። ይህ ደግሞ በኅብረተሰቡ ውስጥ ዋልታ ረገጥ ፖለቲካ እንዲነግሥ እና ብሔራዊ መግባባት እንዲጠፋ ያደርጋል።

የወጣቱ ትውልድ መደንዘዝ፦ ወጣቱ በቲክቶክ እና በፌስቡክ ሱስ ውስጥ ሲወድቅ፣ ለፖለቲካዊ ተሳትፎ እና ለሀገራዊ ጉዳዮች ያለው ንቁ ተሳትፎ እየቀነሰ ይሄዳል (Digital Narcissism)።

የኢኮኖሚ ጉዳት፦ ምርታማነት እና የውጭ ምንዛሬ ፍሰት
ከኢኮኖሚ አንጻር የማህበራዊ ሚዲያ ሱስ ለኢትዮጵያ ከፍተኛ ኪሳራ እያመጣ ነው፦

የምርታማነት መቀነስ፦ በሚሊዮን የሚቆጠሩ ወጣቶች እና የመንግሥት ሠራተኞች በሥራ ሰዓት በእነዚህ መድረኮች ላይ የሚያሳልፉት ሰዓት ለሀገር ውስጥ ምርት (GDP) እድገት ትልቅ እንቅፋት ነው።

የውጭ ምንዛሬ ፍሰት፦ ኢትዮጵያውያን በእነዚህ መድረኮች ላይ ማስታወቂያ ሲያወጡ ወይም የቲክቶክ “ስጦታዎችን” (Gifts) ሲለዋወጡ፣ በድብቅም ይሁን በግልጽ ከፍተኛ መጠን ያለው የውጭ ምንዛሬ ከሀገር ይወጣል። ኩባንያዎቹ (ሜታ፣ ጎግል፣ ቲክቶክ) በኢትዮጵያ ተጠቃሚዎች ቢከብሩም፣ ለሀገሪቱ የሚከፍሉት ግብር ወይም የሚያበረክቱት የኢኮኖሚ ድርሻ አነስተኛ ነው።

የሕግ ክፍተት፦ ተኩላው በበግ ለምድ
ኢትዮጵያ የ”ኮምፒውተር ወንጀል አዋጅ” እና የ”መገናኛ ብዙኃን አዋጅ” ቢኖራትም፣ እነዚህ ሕጎች በዋናነት የሚያተኩሩት ይዘት (Content) ላይ እንጂ በቴክኖሎጂ ኩባንያዎቹ “ሱስ አስያዥ ዲዛይን” ላይ አይደለም። መንግሥት የቴክኖሎጂዎቹ አድናቂ በመሆኑ፣ ኩባንያዎቹን በሕግ ከመጠየቅ ይልቅ “ለዲጂታል ዲፕሎማሲ” ቅድሚያ ይሰጣል።

የሎስ አንጀለሱ ብይን ለኢትዮጵያ የሚሰጠው ትምህርት ግልጽ ነው፤ ቴክኖሎጂን ማድነቅ እና መጠቀም አንድ ነገር ሲሆን፣ የቴክኖሎጂ ኩባንያዎች ዜጎችን (በተለይም ታዳጊዎችን) ለትርፍ ሲሉ ለሱስ እንዳይዳርጉ የመቆጣጠር ኃላፊነት ደግሞ ሌላ ነው። መንግሥት የቴክኖሎጂ አፍቃሪነቱን እና የቁጥጥር ኃላፊነቱን ማመጣጠን ካልቻለ፣ ውጤቱ “ዲጂታል ሱስ የተጠናወተው እና በፖለቲካ የተከፋፈለ” ትውልድ መፍጠር ይሆናል።

About Post Author

Ethiopian Tribune editor

editor@ethiopiantribune.com

https://ethiopiantribune.com

Happy

0 0 %

Sad

0 0 %

Excited

0 0 %

Sleepy

0 0 %

Angry

0 0 %

Surprise

0 0 %

One hundred and twenty years on, we mourn a man twice over, first to death, then to the rather more deliberate vandalism of political convenience.

BY THOMAS ARAYA 

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT, ETHIOPIAN TRIBUNE

“When the telegrapher delivered the news, he got it wrong;

It is not Makonnen who has died, but the poor.”

ETHIOPIAN VERSE, COMPOSED IN MOURNING, 1906

These lines were not written by a courtier angling for a pension, nor by a priest reciting the obligatory liturgy of grief. They were written because an entire country felt the floor give way beneath its feet. One hundred and twenty years ago today, on Megabit 13, 1898 by the Ethiopian calendar, or the 22nd of March, 1906 to those of us consulting a rather more internationally recognised diary, His Highness Ras Makonnen Wolde Mikael departed this world at the age of fifty-four. He left behind him a city that wept, an emperor who was inconsolable, and a legacy that has since been subjected to indignities that would make a lesser ghost very cross indeed.

But this is not merely an occasion for the sort of anniversary column that pats the subject on the head and moves swiftly on. The year 2026 demands more than archival reverence. It demands we look, with clear and slightly uncomfortable eyes, at what has been done or more precisely, what has been not done to the memory of the man his people called the General of the Poor.

The Final Journey: From the Burqa to the Tomb

History records Ras Makonnen’s last days with a poignancy that no dramatist could improve upon. In early 1902 (1894 by the Ethiopian reckoning), the great Ras fell gravely ill. His physicians in Harar, a city he had governed with the quiet authority of a man who understood both swords and diplomacy recommended the superior medical facilities of the young capital, Addis Ababa. And so, on the 12th of January, he set out.

It proved, as these journeys so often do, to be more pilgrimage than medical mission. By the 17th, his caravan had reached the Burqa River, where he paused to observe the Feast of the Epiphany, Timkat amidst the holy waters. There, with the ceremonies swirling around him and his condition worsening with rather poor timing, the Ras made the decision that only a man who knows himself can make: he turned back. Not to Harar, exactly, but to the hills of Kulubi, and to the Church he had served all his life. It was there, on the 22nd of March, 1906, that he drew his last breath.

The mourning that followed was, by any measure, extraordinary. Emperor Menelik II, his cousin, his comrade, and the man with whom he had stood at Adwa a decade earlier, decreed that the forty-day memorial be observed in the capital. On Monday the 30th of April, the air above Addis Ababa was thick with incense and the chanting of thousands of priests drawn from every monastery and cathedral in the central highlands. The following day, St. George’s Day, a vast encampment of tents rose at Se’i Meda. His ceremonial robes were paraded. His golden crown. The medals he wore with that particular quiet dignity of men who have actually earned their decorations. His horses and mules, draped in gold-leafed trappings, walked riderless through the crowds, a sight, one imagines, that reduced grown soldiers to silence.

The Modern Paradox: A Legacy in Fragments

We arrive now at the present day, and the atmosphere changes considerably. We are in the era of “Medemer” a philosophy championed by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed that presents itself as the great weaving-together of Ethiopia’s disparate historical threads into something coherent and proud. Under this administration, “Great Man” history has enjoyed something of a renaissance. The Adwa Victory Memorial stands in the heart of the capital, gleaming and enormous. Unity Park occupies the meticulously restored Grand Palace. The rhetoric regarding the “restoration of the military institution” to its former glory flows freely and often.

One might observe, with only the gentlest of ironies, that restoring an institution’s image is considerably easier than restoring the actual bronze images of the men who built it.

And yet. There exists, in Harar, in the very city that Ras Makonnen built, governed, and made the most cosmopolitan corner of the empire a vacant pedestal. In June 2020, amidst the violent unrest that followed the appalling assassination of the beloved musician Hachalu Hundessa, a mob toppled and smashed the bronze statue of Ras Makonnen. It was not an accident. It was not collateral damage. It was a targeted act a symbolic execution of a man who had already been dead for one hundred and fourteen years and might therefore have reasonably expected to be left in peace.

The state’s response to this act of cultural desecration? A silence so complete it had its own echo.

The Selective Memory of the State

PM Abiy Ahmed has, on numerous occasions, positioned himself as the custodian of Ethiopian military tradition the heir to the generals who routed the Italians at Adwa. He invokes their names. He commissions their memorials. He speaks of continuity. It is stirring stuff, and would be considerably more stirring were it applied with any consistency.

Ras Makonnen was not merely one of the generals of Adwa. He was arguably its most consequential diplomat and strategist the man who had spent years in European capitals learning precisely how the continent worked, and deploying that knowledge in service of an empire that most Europeans had blithely assumed would simply capitulate. To honour Adwa without honouring Makonnen is rather like celebrating a Test match whilst quietly pretending that one of the opening batsmen didn’t exist.

Critics and there are many, though they tend to express themselves carefully suggest that the Prime Minister is performing a delicate, perhaps rather cynical, balancing act. The imagery of the imperial military provides historical legitimacy to the current state. But rebuilding the statue of Ras Makonnen in Harar risks irritating the more nationalist elements of his ethnic Oromo constituency, some of whom have chosen to see Makonnen through the reductive lens of “imperial expansionist” rather than as the vastly more complicated figure he actually was.

And here, here is where the irony becomes almost physically painful. Ras Makonnen was himself of Oromo descent. He hailed from the Wollo Oromo lineage. He spoke multiple languages. He embodied, in his own person, precisely the kind of multi-ethnic, integrated Ethiopian identity that the current administration endlessly claims to champion. The man who is being implicitly erased as a symbol of “imperial oppression” was, in his own right, a son of the very people in whose name the erasure is being conducted.

One is tempted to suggest that whoever is advising the government on the history of its own country might benefit from a library card.

The Cost of Silence

The “selective restoration” we observe across Ethiopia today, where certain statues receive fresh gilding whilst others remain broken in storage or simply absent from their plinths, reveals something uncomfortable about how history is being deployed. It is not being used as a foundation for national identity. It is being used as a political utility: polished when convenient, discarded when inconvenient, and never, under any circumstances, allowed to complicate the preferred narrative of the day.

When the government spends millions on the Adwa Memorial in Addis Ababa whilst “forgetting” the broken bronze in Harar, the message is plain enough: the past is welcome at the table only when it behaves itself. History, in this reading, is not a discipline. It is a decoration.

The mourners of 1906 understood something rather more profound. They understood that Ras Makonnen’s claim on the collective grief of Ethiopia was not bureaucratic or tribal. It transcended ethnicity, rank, and geography. He was a protector of the common person, the one the poet called simply “the poor”, in the fullest and most generous sense of that word.

A continuity with large gaps in it is not, strictly speaking, continuity. It is, at best, a very long ellipsis.

A CALL FOR CONSISTENCY

As we mark this one hundred and twentieth anniversary, the Ethiopian Tribune calls for a rejection of this selective amnesia and calls for it without apology. A military institution is not built on new hardware or sharp uniforms. It is built on the unshakeable honour accorded to the men who came before. To leave Ras Makonnen’s statue in pieces is to hand the mob a permanent veto over national history a rather alarming precedent for any government that claims to represent all Ethiopians to set.

If the Prime Minister genuinely wishes to be seen as a restorer of Ethiopian greatness, he must look beyond the capital’s vanity projects and attend to the wounds in his regional cities. Harar is not a footnote. It is where the empire’s most capable mind governed, built, and is now 120 years after his death dishonoured by a silence that speaks volumes.

The poet, writing in the grief of 1906, was correct: when Makonnen died, the poor lost a father. But if we permit his memory to be quietly partitioned away sacrificed to the expediencies of modern ethnic politics then it is not only the poor who have suffered a loss. It is the soul of the Ethiopian nation itself, which has proved, rather too obligingly, that some of its generals can be erased simply by leaving a pedestal empty long enough for everyone to stop noticing.

About Post Author

Ethiopian Tribune editor

editor@ethiopiantribune.com

https://ethiopiantribune.com

Happy

2 67 %

Sad

0 0 %

Excited

1 33 %

Sleepy

0 0 %

Angry

0 0 %

Surprise

0 0 %

Obituary: Ezra Tsegaye

15 April 1948 – 23 February 2026

On Friday 20 March 2026, family, friends, and members of the Ethiopian and wider Bath community gathered at St Nicholas Church, Kelston, to honour the life of Ezra Tsegaye a man whose quiet strength, intellectual depth, and unwavering generosity shaped countless lives. The service, which began at 13:00 and was livestreamed for those unable to attend, reflected the breadth of Ezra’s influence and the deep affection felt for him across generations and continents.

Born on 15 April 1948 in Addis Ababa, Ezra was the eldest of eleven children. Much of his early childhood was spent in Kabana ቀበና under the care of his grandparents, grounding him in the traditions, language, and spiritual rhythms of Ethiopia. At the age of five, he entered priest school, where he began learning Ge’ez a language he would later master and teach with profound reverence.

His education continued at Haile Selassie I Primary School and the Sanford School (now the English School), where he became known for his generosity, calm presence, and ability to mediate even the most heated student political debates. Friends remembered him as a “voice of moderation,” someone who carried books everywhere and approached life with balance never too high, never too low.

Ezra’s early years were marked by service. He volunteered at a Pony Club and at a home for street boys, even arranging for some of the children to be interviewed by Emperor Haile Selassie a gesture that revealed both his initiative and his compassion.

In 1968, Ezra travelled to England, studying in Oxford and London before embarking on a remarkable journey through Sudan and Egypt in the 1970s. He enrolled at the Coptic Theological College in Cairo, where he learned Arabic and deepened his theological understanding. This period shaped his lifelong commitment to faith, scholarship, and cultural preservation.

On 17 July 1976, Ezra married Josephine, beginning a partnership defined by love, resilience, and shared purpose. Together they raised three children Sophia, Philippa, and Mikiyas and later welcomed seven grandchildren, each of whom he adored. His son described him simply and powerfully: “He was my hero. He taught me resilience, humour, and kindness. I am who I am because of his guidance.”

Ezra’s talents were wide‑ranging. Beyond theology and history, he was a prize‑winning landscape gardener, known for his artistry, precision, and deep understanding of the natural world. Friends affectionately called him “the intellectual gardener,” a man equally at home with soil on his hands and books under his arm.

His younger brother spoke movingly of Ezra’s role as the eldest a natural leader whose words carried weight. He recalled how Ezra and Josephine opened their home in Bath to every Ethiopian who arrived in the area, helping build a community “one by one.” Ezra was remembered as a thoughtful observer, gentle in nature, with a mischievous smile that revealed his warmth and humour.

The funeral service itself was a tapestry of readings, testimonies, and spiritual reflections. The clergy of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church Qesis Dereje, Qesis Berehnu, and a Deacon led the liturgical elements with solemnity and grace. The detailed life history was read by Dr Belete, whose delivery captured both the breadth and intimacy of Ezra’s journey. Alongside him, Ato Kifley, Lij Mulugeta Asrate Kassa, Dr Beqele, Chachu, and Engineer Fisseha offered heartfelt speeches of remembrance, each illuminating a different facet of Ezra’s character.

The service was attended and recorded by several individuals who travelled specifically to honour Ezra. The Editor‑in‑Chief of the Ethiopian Tribune, Endex, together with Lij Mulugeta Asrate Kassa, Ezra’s schoolmate from Sanford School, drove from London to Bath to attend the ceremony and livestream it for friends and family around the world. Professor Shaun also recorded the service, ensuring that the day was preserved with care and respect.

Following the church service, the gathering continued at Fairfield House, the historic residence of H.I.M. Emperor Haile Selassie I. In the bright, crisp spring sunshine, guests were welcomed with Ethiopian food and traditional coffee, lovingly prepared by friends and family. It was a warm, communal farewell a celebration of Ezra’s life in a place deeply connected to Ethiopian heritage. Special thanks are extended to the Fairfield House management team for their support and hospitality.

We also give thanks to the organisers of the coach from London, led by Athlete Berahn, who ensured that many could travel together to honour Ezra. The beautiful remembrance portrait created by the artist was another touching contribution to the day.

Above all, we acknowledge the extraordinary strength and grace of Ezra’s family, his wife Josephine, and his daughters Sophia and Philippa, who welcomed and hosted friends and relatives with resilience and warmth during such a difficult time.

For those who could not attend, the full ceremony remains available to watch here:
https://www.youtube.com/live/Re4uiwRjVgI

Ezra leaves behind a legacy of kindness, integrity, and intellectual generosity. He will be remembered not only for what he accomplished, but for the way he lived with balance, dignity, and a deep, abiding love for his family, his culture, and his community. His presence will be profoundly missed, but his influence endures in the lives he shaped and the knowledge he passed on.

To Ezra’s beloved wife Josephine, his daughters Sophia and Philippa, his son Mikiyas, and the entire extended family, may you find strength in the love that surrounded Ezra throughout his life and in the extraordinary unity shown on the day of his farewell. The depth of affection expressed by friends, schoolmates, clergy, and community members is a testament to the man he was: steady, wise, generous, and profoundly cherished.

To his friends, colleagues, and all who travelled from near and far including those who journeyed from London, those who spoke, those who served, those who recorded, and those who simply stood in quiet solidarity may you be comforted by the knowledge that Ezra’s legacy lives on in every life he touched. His kindness, his humour, his scholarship, and his gentle leadership continue to echo in the memories shared and the stories retold.

May the warmth of community, the beauty of the spring day at Fairfield House, and the shared prayers of the faithful bring peace to every heart that mourns him. And may the hope of resurrection, so central to the service, offer reassurance that love does not end it transforms, endures, and continues to guide us.

This obituary was composed and written by Endex, Editor‑in‑Chief of the Ethiopian Tribune.

About Post Author

Ethiopian Tribune editor

editor@ethiopiantribune.com

https://ethiopiantribune.com

Happy

1 100 %

Sad

0 0 %

Excited

0 0 %

Sleepy

0 0 %

Angry

0 0 %

Surprise

0 0 %

By Professor Girma Berhanu

Introduction

The ongoing violence directed against Christian Amhara communities in the Arsi Zone raises serious concerns regarding the protection of vulnerable populations in Ethiopia. Recent reports indicate an intensification of targeted attacks, including killings, abductions, and the destruction of civilian property, particularly in districts such as Shirka, Guna, and Aseko. Investigations by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission have documented incidents since late 2025 in which armed groups carried out attacks that resulted in deaths, injuries, and displacement of local residents, severely undermining the security and basic rights of affected communities.

These developments must be understood within the broader context of Ethiopia’s complex and evolving conflict dynamics. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has documented widespread human rights violations in multiple regions of the country, including Oromia and Amhara. In 2023 alone, thousands of civilians were killed in violent incidents across these regions, while thousands were subjected to abuses such as arbitrary detention, torture, and forced displacement. Such patterns indicate that the current violence is not an isolated phenomenon but part of a broader cycle of armed conflict and intercommunal tensions orchestrated by the system.

Historically, Amhara communities living in parts of Oromia have periodically faced episodes of mass violence and forced displacement. Several documented incidents—including massacres targeting civilians identified as ethnically Amhara—illustrate the recurring nature of such attacks. One example occurred in 2020 in western Oromia, where hundreds of Amhara civilians were killed in an attack widely reported by international media and human rights observers. These events underscore the vulnerability of minority communities residing outside their region of ethnic majority.

In recent months, observers and human-rights organizations have expressed concern over what appears to be a renewed escalation in violence. Reports describe killings, kidnappings, and large-scale displacement in parts of Oromia, with civilians caught between insurgent groups, local militias, and government forces. The insurgency involving the Oromo Liberation Army has contributed to a deteriorating security environment in which civilians are frequently exposed to abuses by multiple actors. However, the group claimed the violence aimed to fracture collective opposition by pitting communities against one another, including along Oromo–Amhara and Christian–Muslim lines. The OLA further stated that “whether in uniform or without, whether carrying a gun or a pen,” any actor who “weaponizes innocent civilians for political ends” would be considered its enemy, adding that it would confront such forces decisively.

Despite the gravity of these developments, the international response has often been perceived as limited compared with the scale of the humanitarian and human rights concerns involved. Scholars and policy analysts have noted that Ethiopia’s overlapping conflicts—spanning regions such as Tigray, Amhara, and Oromia—have complicated international engagement and reduced sustained attention to localized patterns of violence against minority communities.

Given these conditions, the situation warrants sustained monitoring, systematic documentation, and deeper international engagement. Strengthening mechanisms for independent investigation, accountability, and civilian protection remains essential for mitigating further violence and ensuring that vulnerable communities are afforded the protections guaranteed under international human rights and humanitarian law.

Atrocities in Arsi: A Human Rights Crisis in Ethiopia’s Oromia Region

The country of Ethiopia has been engulfed in war, massacres, and displacement at an alarming rate since Prime Minister Abiy came to power. The victims are mostly Amharas, particularly those who belong to the Orthodox Church. Such incidents have become increasingly common in the Oromia region. The perpetrators are often described as state-sponsored paramilitary groups and the so-called OLF, with each side blaming the other. This situation has continued for approximately eight years. Millions of people have lost their lives, properties have been destroyed, and displacement has become a defining feature of the new Ethiopia. The crimes being committed against Ethiopia and the defenseless Amharas are unbelievably horrifying and multifaceted. Yet both national actors and the international community remain largely silent.

The current spree of massacres in Arsi is telling. It took now over 6 months unabated. Many known media and newspapers have reported the atrocities. A good gesture is that three major Ethiopian religious bodies condemned the killing of 21 civilians in Shirka Woreda, East Arsi, urging swift investigations, accountability and stronger protection to prevent further inter-religious tensions. The Permanent Synod of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Inter-Religious Council of Ethiopia, and the Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council have each issued statements condemning the killing of 21 civilians in Shirka Woreda, East Arsi Zone of Oromia Region. They urged authorities to take immediate action to bring the perpetrators to justice and strengthen protection for residents. In their statements, the religious institutions denounced the attack and called for swift, transparent investigations, warning against attempts to exploit the incident to incite further violence. The known Borkena news outlet has reported the massacres continuously.

Violence in Arsi Zone and Competing Narratives

The Oromo Liberation Army has accused what it described as “mercenaries” of moving through the Arsi Zone and deliberately targeting Orthodox Christian civilians in order to inflame inter-religious and inter-ethnic tensions. The group has denied responsibility for attacks against civilians and instead alleged that unidentified armed actors are attempting to provoke conflict between communities.

In a statement dated 1 March 2026, the Permanent Synod of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church reported that it had received information from its dioceses indicating that at least 21 civilians were killed in an attack in East Arsi. According to the statement, several survivors were abducted and their whereabouts remain unknown, while homes and property belonging to more than ten households were burned. The Synod emphasized that the victims were Orthodox Christians with no involvement in any armed conflict and stated that perpetrators who invoke religion to justify violence do not represent the teachings of any faith tradition. It further warned that such attacks risk creating divisions among religious communities that have historically coexisted in relative harmony and called upon Muslim and Christian leaders to jointly condemn the violence.

The Ethiopian Islamic Affairs Supreme Council similarly expressed deep sorrow over the killings of what it described as innocent Orthodox Christian civilians in Shirka Woreda. In its statement, the council stressed that the attack does not represent any religious teaching and warned that such incidents threaten long-standing traditions of inter-religious coexistence and mutual respect. Independent reporting and advocacy sources have also highlighted the severity of the violence in the region. According to reports cited by the media outlet Borkena, districts including Shirka, Merti, Guna, and Holonto have experienced repeated attacks in which civilians were killed or injured, property was destroyed, and communities were displaced. These reports characterize the situation as a significant escalation of violence in the Arsi Zone.

The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has documented a pattern of attacks affecting civilians in the area in its March 2026 reporting. According to the commission, recent incidents resulted in dozens of deaths, including multiple killings in Shirka and Merti districts, alongside cases of injury, abduction, and missing persons. The EHRC also noted broader patterns of insecurity in parts of Oromia since 2025, where recurring attacks on civilians have contributed to a wider humanitarian and human rights crisis. Eyewitness accounts collected by investigators and journalists describe highly coordinated attacks in which armed assailants targeted households and villages, leading to civilian deaths and widespread displacement. These testimonies indicate that communities have been subjected to intimidation, destruction of homes, and forced migration, contributing to a deteriorating humanitarian situation in the region.

At the same time, responsibility for the violence remains contested. Federal and regional authorities have repeatedly attributed many attacks to the Oromo Liberation Army, while the OLA has denied involvement and accused government forces or affiliated militias of staging or exploiting violence in order to justify security operations. This cycle of mutual accusations has complicated efforts to establish accountability and has hindered independent verification of events on the ground. The resulting climate of uncertainty underscores the need for impartial investigation. Without credible and transparent inquiries into the perpetrators of these attacks, the persistence of violence risks normalizing impunity and further undermining social cohesion in Ethiopia’s ethnically and religiously diverse society. Strengthening mechanisms for independent investigation, civilian protection, and accountability therefore remains critical to preventing further atrocities and restoring trust between communities.

Borkena. (2022, September 27). Ethiopia: Attack in Horo Guduru Wollega, Oromia region. https://borkena.com/2022/09/27/ethiopia-horo-guduru-wollega-oromo-region/

The ‘New Auschwitz’? Mass Violence and the Targeting of Civilians in Arsi Zone

Many years ago, I visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, located on the grounds of the former Auschwitz concentration camp, the largest Nazi concentration and extermination camp during World War II. Several years later, I also visited a Jewish cultural center and museum in Riga, Latvia, which similarly commemorates the persecution and destruction of Jewish communities during the Holocaust. Today, Auschwitz-Birkenau and other Holocaust memorial institutions serve as powerful sites of remembrance, preserving the memory of immense human suffering and reminding visitors of the catastrophic consequences of hatred, discrimination, and systematic dehumanization.

The Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum provides a detailed historical account of the camp complex and the atrocities committed there. It stands as a solemn warning about what can occur when prejudice, exclusion, and ideological extremism are allowed to escalate unchecked. The enduring message of such memorials was eloquently articulated by Ellen Germain during the 75th anniversary of the museum on 13 July 2022. She emphasized the responsibility of future generations to safeguard historical truth:

“We must safeguard your testimony, their testimony, so that truth will never die. The world must never forget. The world must never deny. The world must never downplay the Holocaust. We must remain ever on guard, and we must do far more to teach the lessons of the Holocaust and apply them in our own time. We must counter hate and lies with tolerance and truth. And we must stand up for human dignity and freedom wherever they are imperiled.”

These reflections underline a critical principle: remembrance is not solely about honoring the victims of the past, but also about recognizing warning signs in the present. The lessons of the Holocaust compel societies to remain vigilant when patterns of discrimination, dehumanization, and targeted violence begin to emerge. When communities are singled out because of their identity—whether ethnic, religious, or cultural—the risk of escalating persecution becomes real.

It is within this broader moral and historical framework that contemporary reports of violence against civilians in the Arsi Zone must be considered. While historical contexts differ, the persistence of attacks against vulnerable populations raises urgent questions about protection, accountability, and the international community’s responsibility to respond when civilians become targets of systematic violence.

More than seventy-five years after the crematoria ceased their inhuman work, the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum continues to preserve the former camp complex as a permanent site of memory. The preservation of this Holocaust memorial serves an essential purpose: to help future generations understand the consequences of hatred, racism, and systematic violence, and to ensure that such atrocities are never repeated. The site also stands as enduring evidence against those who attempt to deny or distort the historical reality of the Holocaust.

Yet the lessons of these memorials are not confined to the past. The warning they convey—that societies must remain vigilant against hatred, persecution, and mass violence—remains deeply relevant today. Reports from several contemporary conflicts suggest that civilians continue to face grave abuses, including in the ongoing war in Ukraine and in parts of Ethiopia.

Particularly troubling are reports of attacks against civilians in the Arsi Zone of the Oromia Region. Accounts from religious institutions, local sources, and human-rights observers describe killings, abductions, and the destruction of homes affecting vulnerable communities. These reports raise serious concerns about the protection of civilians and the ability of affected populations to seek safety during episodes of violence. While historical contexts differ greatly from those of the Holocaust, the recurrence of violence against civilians underscores the enduring importance of remembering past atrocities and applying their lessons to contemporary crises. Memorials such as Auschwitz remind the world that indifference to suffering, denial of abuses, and failure to protect vulnerable populations can have devastating consequences. Ensuring accountability and safeguarding human dignity therefore remain essential responsibilities for governments, civil society, and the international community alike.

Violence, Silence, and Moral Responsibility

Reports emerging from parts of Oromia Region, particularly in areas such as Arsi Zone and Wollega, describe widespread violence against civilians, including killings, displacement, and the destruction of homes and livelihoods. Observers and advocacy groups have raised concerns that armed actors operating in the region have targeted vulnerable communities and that humanitarian access has at times been restricted, making independent verification and relief efforts extremely difficult. Allegations have also surfaced that bodies of victims have been burned and that attacks on civilians have been carried out with extreme brutality—imagery that evokes memories of some of the darkest chapters of twentieth-century violence.

This paper seeks to draw attention to what many observers describe as a deeply underreported humanitarian tragedy unfolding in these regions. While the historical contexts differ greatly from those of the Nazi concentration camps, the scale of civilian suffering and the persistence of violence raise urgent moral and political questions. Reports indicate that armed groups operating in the region, sometimes in environments where security institutions have failed to provide adequate protection, have created conditions in which communities live under constant fear of attack. As a result, thousands of civilians have reportedly been displaced and forced to flee their homes, creating a growing humanitarian crisis.

The failure of state institutions to adequately protect citizens exacerbates this tragedy. When attacks occur repeatedly without credible investigation or accountability, communities lose confidence in the ability of authorities to safeguard their security and basic rights. Observers have therefore called for independent investigations into allegations of mass killings, human rights abuses, and other violations in order to establish the facts and ensure that perpetrators are held accountable under the rule of law.

Ethiopia today faces immense human suffering and a profound national crisis. Many citizens feel that the country’s political future is increasingly shaped by competing ethno-nationalist movements and armed actors. In such an environment, atrocities—including killings, arrests, and the mistreatment of civilians—risk becoming normalized. The silence of political leaders, humanitarian actors, and international institutions in the face of such reports has raised troubling questions among many Ethiopians about whether the suffering of their communities is receiving adequate attention.

Religious and moral leaders may have an especially important role to play in such circumstances. Ethiopia is a deeply religious society in which spiritual institutions often serve as sources of moral guidance and social cohesion. Leaders from all faith traditions—Christian, Muslim, and indigenous spiritual traditions—can help promote reconciliation and emphasize the shared humanity of all Ethiopians. Their voices are particularly important in reminding communities that violence committed in the name of religion or ethnicity contradicts the ethical principles that faith traditions claim to uphold.

Periods of national crisis also highlight the importance of collective moral responsibility. Philosophical discussions of responsibility emphasize that institutions and leaders bear a duty to prevent harm when they possess the power to do so (Risser, 1996). Silence in the face of injustice can enable further abuses, while moral leadership can help mobilize societies toward peace and accountability. As the writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn warned in The Gulag Archipelago, ignoring evil allows it to grow and ultimately undermines the foundations of justice.

Understanding why societies sometimes fail to respond to mass atrocities has also been explored by scholars. Psychologist Paul Slovic describes the phenomenon of “psychic numbing,” in which large-scale human suffering paradoxically leads to reduced emotional engagement and weaker public action (Slovic, 2007). People often respond strongly to the suffering of a single identifiable victim, yet become increasingly indifferent when confronted with statistics describing thousands of victims. This dynamic may help explain why some humanitarian crises fail to receive sustained international attention.

Political scientists have also highlighted how ethnic identity can be mobilized by political elites in ways that intensify violence. According to James D. Fearon and David D. Laitin, ethnic violence is frequently linked to strategic political mobilization in which elites frame conflicts in ethnic terms in order to consolidate power or mobilize supporters (Fearon & Laitin, 2000). Such narratives can generate fear, deepen divisions, and ultimately legitimize violence against perceived out-groups.

These dynamics underscore the importance of resisting propaganda, rejecting narratives that dehumanize other communities, and reaffirming the shared dignity of all citizens. Throughout history, attempts to manipulate ethnic identity for political purposes have produced devastating consequences. Divide-and-rule strategies and discourses of ethnic superiority can create cycles of resentment and retaliation that undermine national cohesion and long-term stability.

Ethiopia’s future therefore depends on a renewed commitment to accountability, justice, and reconciliation. Independent investigations, protection of civilians, and responsible leadership are essential steps toward breaking cycles of violence. Equally important is the willingness of citizens, community leaders, and institutions to confront injustice openly and to reject the normalization of cruelty and hatred.

As writer E. A. Bucchianeri observed, “It’s not unpatriotic to denounce an injustice committed on our behalf; perhaps it’s the most patriotic thing we can do.” Speaking out against violence and defending the dignity of all human beings is not an act of division—it is a necessary foundation for a just and peaceful society.

In conclusion, I argue that the Abiy regime’s leadership incompetence, systemic cruelty, and moral vacuum have directly fueled Ethiopia’s current crises—the result of a leadership class lacking fundamental moral intelligence. Beheshtifar, Esmaeli, and Moghadam (2011) define moral intelligence as the “central intelligence for all humans,” distinct from both cognitive and emotional intelligence. Lennick and Kiel, the architects of this concept, identify its four pillars as integrity, responsibility, forgiveness, and compassion. Ethiopian ethnonationalists, particularly Oromo extremists, exhibit a profound deficit in these competencies—a legacy of moral decay inherited from their TPLF predecessors. For those lacking this essential intelligence, deception and malice become the standard, creating a pervasive political pathology that defines the current era.

References

Beheshtifar, M., Esmaeli, Z., & Moghadam, M. N. (2011). Effect of moral intelligence on leadership. European Journal of Economics, Finance and Administrative Sciences, 43, 6–11.

Cohen, S. (2013). States of denial: Knowing about atrocities and suffering. Polity Press.

Eurasia Review. (2021, May 16). The logic behind events in Ethiopia (Op-ed). https://www.eurasiareview.com/16052021-the-logic-behind-events-in-ethiopia-oped/

Eurasia Review. (2022, April 13). Victims and victimization in Ethiopian politics: Targeting the Amhara on three fronts (Op-ed). https://www.eurasiareview.com/13042022-victims-and-victimization-in-ethiopian-politics-targeting-the-amhara-on-three-fronts-oped/

Eurasia Review. (2022, July 26). Oromummaa unchained: Ethnic apartheid and territorial expansion in Ethiopia (Op-ed). https://www.eurasiareview.com/26072022-oromummaa-unchained-ethnic-apartheid-and-territorial-expansion-in-ethiopia-oped/

Fearon, J. D., & Laitin, D. D. (2000). Violence and the social construction of ethnic identity. International Organization, 54(4), 845–877.

Lind, G. (2008). The meaning and measurement of moral judgment competence: A dual-aspect model. In D. Fasko Jr. & W. Willis (Eds.), Contemporary philosophical and psychological perspectives on moral development and education (pp. 185–220). Hampton Press.

Risser, D. T. (1978). Power and collective responsibility. Kinesis, 9(1), 23–33.

Risser, D. T. (1996). The social dimension of moral responsibility: Taking organizations seriously. Journal of Social Philosophy, 27(1), 189–207.

Slovic, P. (2007). “If I look at the mass I will never act”: Psychic numbing and genocide. Judgment and Decision Making, 2(2), 79–95.

The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (n.d.). Collective moral responsibility. http://www.iep.utm.edu/collecti/

The New Yorker. (2022, October 3). Did a Nobel Peace Laureate stoke a civil war? https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/10/03/did-a-nobel-peace-laureate-stoke-a-civil-war

The Washington Post. (2022, July 18). Ethiopian genocide commands attention. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/07/18/ethiopian-genocide-commands-attention/

White, J. R. (2005). Auschwitz: A new history. History: Reviews of New Books, 34(1), 19. https://doi.org/10.1080/03612759.2005.10526737

The views, arguments, and conclusions expressed in this article are solely those of the author, Professor Girma Berhanu, and do not represent the editorial position of the Ethiopian Tribune. Readers are encouraged to consult multiple sources when forming their own judgments on the complex and evolving situation described.

Contact information:

Girma Berhanu

Department of Education and Special Education (Professor) University of Gothenburg

Box 300, SE 405 30

Göteborg, Sweden

About Post Author

Ethiopian Tribune editor

editor@ethiopiantribune.com

https://ethiopiantribune.com

Happy

0 0 %

Sad

0 0 %

Excited

0 0 %

Sleepy

0 0 %

Angry

0 0 %

Surprise

0 0 %

Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopian Airlines, and the Price of Personal Diplomacy in a War Zone

By E. Frashie, Senior Political Correspondent

On the morning of 12 March 2026, while Iranian ballistic missiles were still smouldering in the wreckage of Dubai International Airport’s Terminal 3, an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft lifted off from Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa. Its passenger of distinction: Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, commander-in-chief of the Ethiopian National Defence Force, and custodian of Africa’s largest airline. His destination: the United Arab Emirates. His stated purpose: a “working visit” to meet President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The timing, as millions of Ethiopians would note with quiet fury, coincided almost precisely with MBZ’s 65th birthday.

The visit has detonated a political controversy that cuts far deeper than protocol. It has forced Ethiopians at home and in the diaspora to confront uncomfortable questions about their Prime Minister’s sense of priorities, his stewardship of a flagship national institution in crisis, and whether personal affection for a Gulf monarch represents sound statecraft or dangerous vanity in the middle of a regional war.

Iranian missiles had struck the very airport he landed at. And he flew there on the airline that is losing £108 million every single week.

THE AIRLINE ON THE BRINK

To understand the full weight of this controversy, one must first reckon with the financial catastrophe enveloping Ethiopian Airlines. The airline Africa’s most profitable, most connected, and most strategically important carrier has been brought to its knees by the Middle East conflict.

ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES CRISIS — KEY FIGURES

$137Mestimated weekly revenue loss across passenger and cargo operations

100+flights cancelled per week; 15 per day on average

160cargo flights grounded weekly, severing diaspora supply chains

$100+per barrel Brent crude surge from a forecast of $62, fully unhedged

Before the conflict erupted in late February 2026, the airline operated three daily flights to Dubai, three to Tel Aviv, one to Abu Dhabi, and one to Sharjah. Today, it runs precisely two daily flights to Amman. Its entire Gulf network built painstakingly over decades has effectively collapsed overnight.

The consequences for fuel costs and insurance premiums have been equally brutal. Prior to the war, analysts at IATA had forecast that oil prices would ease to approximately $62 per barrel through 2026 a figure that underpinned the industry’s record $41 billion global profit forecast. By early March, Brent crude had soared well past $100 per barrel, exposing airlines that had abandoned fuel hedging strategies to the full ferocity of market volatility. It is into this burning financial landscape that the Prime Minister chose to fly on his own airline to celebrate his friend’s birthday. The symbolism, many would argue, is devastating.

THE MISSILES WERE ALREADY FLYING

The security dimension of this journey beggars belief on closer inspection. Iran did not merely close its airspace in the weeks preceding Abiy’s trip. It actively, repeatedly, and deliberately attacked civilian aviation infrastructure within the UAE, the very country the Prime Minister was travelling to.

Terminal 3 at Dubai International Airport, one of the world’s busiest air terminals, was struck by Iranian drones, prompting full-scale evacuation. A second attack followed within hours, with thick black smoke rising above the city’s skyline. Zayed International Airport in Abu Dhabi was also struck, killing one person and seriously injuring four others. In total, Iran launched 174 ballistic missiles at the UAE during the initial assault phase, with 689 drones deployed, 44 of which caused confirmed impact within the country. Targets included the Palm Jumeirah, the Burj Al Arab, Jebel Ali Port, and a French naval base. Six civilians were killed in the UAE from Iranian strikes.

The theoretical danger is chilling: had an Iranian missile or drone struck Ethiopian Airlines’ aircraft as it approached or departed Dubai International, who would bear responsibility? Iran would almost certainly deny deliberate targeting, characterising any such incident as collateral damage from strikes on US-allied Gulf infrastructure a defence Tehran has already rehearsed after striking a hotel it justified as hosting American military personnel. Ethiopia, a non-combatant with no leverage over Tehran and no meaningful military alliances, would have had no mechanism whatsoever to hold Iran accountable. The tragedy would simply be absorbed.

THE DIASPORA SEVERED FROM HOME

Beyond the geopolitical drama lies a quieter, more intimate human cost that has been largely overlooked in the noise of high politics: the severing of Ethiopia’s diaspora communities from the cultural lifeline that connects them to home.

Ethiopian Airlines has long served a function that transcends commerce. For the millions of Ethiopians living in Washington DC, Stockholm, Oslo, Toronto, and across the Gulf, the airline’s cargo holds carry something more precious than freight: fresh injera, delivered within 24 hours of being baked in Addis Ababa or Gondar. Companies such as Mama Fresh ship injera to Washington DC six days per week, to Sweden three times weekly, and to Norway twice weekly. Before the conflict, this supply chain operated with quiet, extraordinary efficiency and it flowed almost entirely through the Gulf hubs that are now either closed or under fire.

The scale of this trade is significant. In the first quarter of 2022 alone, teff injera exports earned $36 million in three months, accounting for 44.4% of all Ethiopian food and beverage export earnings. An estimated 6.5 million small-scale farmers depend on teff cultivation for their livelihoods. And it has all been cut. For diaspora Ethiopians in the Gulf states particularly, the irony is acute and painful: their Prime Minister was physically present in that warzone not to attend to his countrymen’s welfare, but to deliver birthday greetings to a billionaire autocrat.

THE VOICE OF SUPPORT: ‘A MASTER STROKE OF DEPENDENCY MANAGEMENT’

Not everyone views the visit as reckless. Within Abiy’s Prosperity Party and amongst his core supporters particularly those who argue that the UAE relationship is existential for Ethiopia’s economic survival a different narrative has emerged, forcefully if not always convincingly.

“People misunderstand what this relationship represents,” argues a senior policy adviser aligned with the Prosperity Party who spoke to this correspondent on background. “The UAE has underwritten Ethiopian financial stability for years. Abu Dhabi’s billions have been the single most important external factor in preventing a sovereign debt collapse. When MBZ invites you, you go. That is not personal weakness, that is the arithmetic of survival.”

Some diplomatic observers in Addis Ababa echo this view, albeit cautiously. A Western envoy who requested anonymity noted: “Abiy’s relationship with MBZ is not simply personal. The UAE has strategic interests in the Horn of Africa, Red Sea access, counter-Islamist positioning, commercial investment and Abiy is their primary interlocutor. Maintaining that channel, even symbolically, has real value.” Prosperity Party loyalists pointed further to the 2018 peace deal with Eritrea, brokered partly through UAE facilitation, as evidence that personal diplomacy with Gulf leaders yields concrete results.

THE OPPOSITION’S FURY: ‘CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE OF THE NATION’S ASSETS’

Opposition voices were far less measured, one party issued a formal statement describing the visit as “an inexcusable dereliction of duty during a national economic emergency,” while calling on parliament to demand a full account of the trip’s costs and stated objectives.

• “Ethiopian Airlines belongs to the Ethiopian people. It is not the Prime Minister’s private jet.“🛩️

Oromo federalist opposition figures were equally pointed, framing the visit as emblematic of a broader pattern of governance they characterise as Gulf-dependent, personalised, and disconnected from ordinary Ethiopian suffering. “While the diaspora cannot get injera,” said one opposition parliamentarian, “the Prime Minister is eating birthday cake in Dubai. This image will not be forgotten.“

Academic voices added intellectual weight to the critique a Professor of Addis Ababa University’s Institute of Political Studies argued that the visit represented a structural failure: “Modern statecraft has abundant tools for symbolic personal communication encrypted video conferencing, personal envoys, handwritten letters delivered by senior ministers. The physical presence of a head of state in an active conflict zone serves no purpose that these instruments cannot replicate, at a fraction of the cost and precisely zero risk.”

THE VIRTUAL COMMUNICATION QUESTION

This brings us to perhaps the most damaging and unanswerable critique of the entire episode: in 2026, was this journey necessary at all? Heads of state communicate through secure video conferencing systems, encrypted diplomatic channels, personal envoys of ministerial rank, and private correspondence on a daily basis. The G7, the African Union, the United Nations all conduct substantive diplomacy routinely without physical presence.

Even MBZ himself was actively managing a wartime crisis when Abiy arrived, visiting wounded patients in hospital and publicly declaring that the UAE was “in a period of war.” The idea that this was the right moment for a visiting African leader’s birthday call strains credulity. A personal birthday message could have been delivered by video call in four minutes. A handwritten letter of solidarity, co-signed by Ethiopia’s Foreign Minister, would have conveyed the same personal warmth, the same political signal of alignment, and the same bilateral goodwill without placing an aircraft over bombed runways, or leaving Ethiopia’s diaspora watching their Prime Minister fly into a warzone while they cannot receive a delivery of injera.

THE VERDICT: STATECRAFT OR SENTIMENT?

The defence of this visit ultimately rests on a single pillar: that Abiy’s personal relationship with MBZ is so financially and diplomatically valuable to Ethiopia that its maintenance justifies almost any sacrifice. It is an argument that has some merit in the abstract. Ethiopia’s dependence on UAE financial support is real, documented, and consequential.

But the argument collapses when subjected to elementary scrutiny. If the visit produced concrete relief, emergency fuel cost agreements, financial support for the airline’s losses, guarantees of airspace access, or accelerated cargo resumption for diaspora supply chains, there is no evidence of it. The Ethiopian government has announced nothing. Ethiopian Airlines has received no reported bailout. The injera flights remain grounded.

What the visit did produce, beyond birthday greetings, is a political image that will be difficult to erase: the Prime Minister of one of the world’s poorest nations, on the aircraft of its cash-haemorrhaging flagship airline, landing at an airport that had been bombed twice in 48 hours, to wish a billionaire autocrat a happy birthday. In the annals of Ethiopian political symbolism, few images have been so costly or so avoidable.

The question for Ethiopians is not whether the UAE relationship matters. It does, profoundly. The question is whether this particular trip, at this particular moment, served Ethiopia or whether it served only the personal comfort of a Prime Minister who has, perhaps, allowed the warmth of a friendship to cloud his judgement about when the nation’s airline, the nation’s reputation, and the lives aboard that aircraft are simply too precious a thing to risk. On the current evidence, history will struggle to find a convincing answer in favour of the flight.

———————//——————

E. Frashie is Senior Political Correspondent at The Ethiopian Tribune, covering governance, aviation, and Horn of Africa geopolitics.

Views expressed are those of the author and do not represent the editorial position of The Ethiopian Tribune.

About Post Author

Ethiopian Tribune editor

editor@ethiopiantribune.com

https://ethiopiantribune.com

Happy

0 0 %

Sad

0 0 %

Excited

0 0 %

Sleepy

0 0 %

Angry

0 0 %

Surprise

0 0 %

By Endex The Ethiopian Tribune editor in chief

Opinion & Analysis

There is a particular kind of arrogance embedded in the way certain international media institutions cover Africa. It is not always the arrogance of open hostility that would at least be straightforward to contest. It is, rather, the arrogance of the editorial template: the quiet, institutional assumption that a continent of fifty-four nations and a billion-plus souls can be adequately explained through a rotating cast of familiar imagery famine, fragmentation, and failure. Ethiopia has endured this treatment for decades. What demands urgent examination today is not merely that it persists, but who is perpetuating it, why, and what Ethiopia ought to do in response.
Al Jazeera, the Doha-based broadcaster funded by the Qatari state, has positioned itself globally as the voice of the underdog, the challenger of Western media hegemony, the outlet that speaks truth to power. It is a seductive proposition, and in certain contexts, notably its early coverage of the Arab Spring, it was not without merit. Yet when the camera turns toward Ethiopia, something rather revealing happens to that self-proclaimed editorial conscience. The underdog disappears. The complexity vanishes. What remains is a country rendered perpetually crisis-ridden, politically naïve, and diplomatically inconsequential.
This is not an accident. It is a pattern, and patterns in journalism are never merely stylistic.

The Architecture of a Double Standard
Academic scrutiny of Al Jazeera’s reporting on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) has produced findings that should embarrass any institution claiming journalistic neutrality. Research by Aqalh and Abdul-Nabi (2026) demonstrates that the network’s coverage systematically “privileges Egyptian existential narratives whilst minimising Ethiopian developmental claims.” Abebe, Tilahun, and Belay (2024) reach a complementary conclusion, finding that Al Jazeera “foregrounds conflict frames at the expense of cooperative or technical frames” when reporting the Ethio-Egyptian dispute. Nigatu and Lidetie (2025) are yet more direct, arguing that “the discursive privileging of Egyptian claims reflects broader regional power dynamics rather than journalistic neutrality.”
Let us be plain about what this means. When Ethiopia constructs a dam on the Blue Nile, a sovereign infrastructure project on its own territory, financed by its own citizens through bond purchases, designed to lift tens of millions out of energy poverty, Al Jazeera frames this as aggression. When Egypt invokes the language of existential threat to describe a dam it has no legal authority to veto, Al Jazeera amplifies that framing with minimal interrogation. The asymmetry is not subtle, and it is not neutral. It is, to borrow a phrase the network itself would deploy without hesitation in other contexts, state-serving propaganda dressed in the clothing of public interest journalism.
This double standard becomes yet more conspicuous when Al Jazeera trains its editorial eye upon Ethiopian journalists and social media influencers allegedly paid to promote Israeli narratives without disclosure. The ethical failures in question are genuine. Undisclosed sponsored travel is a serious breach of journalistic integrity, and it warrants honest, vigorous accountability. But Al Jazeera’s framing of these individual cases does not stop at ethical critique. It extrapolates, implying a broader Ethiopian susceptibility to manipulation, a national gullibility, as though the misconduct of a handful of individuals reveals something essentially true and damning about Ethiopia as a political society. One struggles to recall Al Jazeera applying the same extrapolative logic to, say, British journalists compromised by government access, or American commentators embedded with Gulf state public relations operations. The standard, it seems, applies selectively, and the selection tells us a great deal.

The Geopolitics Beneath the Editorial Line
Al Jazeera’s coverage of Ethiopia cannot be understood without understanding Qatar. The network is not an independent editorial enterprise in the manner it presents itself; it is a state-funded broadcaster whose editorial orientations are inevitably shaped by Qatari foreign policy priorities. Qatar has significant strategic interests in the Horn of Africa. It has mediated, with mixed results and considerable self-interest, in various regional disputes. Its relationships with Egypt, with various Islamist political movements, and with competing Gulf powers all create a web of geopolitical incentives that bear directly upon how its flagship broadcaster chooses to cover a country like Ethiopia.
When Al Jazeera foregrounds Ethiopian instability, it is not simply making an editorial judgement about newsworthiness. It is whether consciously or through the more insidious mechanism of institutionalised editorial culture, producing a representation of Ethiopia that serves certain regional actors and their preferred narratives. A fractious, fragile, easily-manipulated Ethiopia is convenient for those who wish to portray the GERD as reckless rather than visionary, who wish to frame Ethiopian foreign policy as reactive rather than strategic, who wish, in short, to diminish Ethiopia’s standing in a region where it remains, despite everything, the most populous nation and the diplomatic anchor of the African Union.
This is media as geopolitical instrument. It deserves to be named as such.

The History That Dare Not Speak Its Name

Perhaps the most intellectually dishonest feature of Al Jazeera’s recent Ethiopia coverage is what it refuses to remember. Ethiopia is home to one of Africa’s largest refugee populations — not as a transit country, but as a host. Hundreds of thousands of displaced people from Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan, South Sudan, Syria, and Yemen have found sanctuary on Ethiopian soil. Syrians who fled the catastrophic civil war that Al Jazeera covered with such sustained passion built lives in Addis Ababa, opened businesses, integrated into communities welcomed, for the most part, without the violent xenophobia that has disfigured the response of certain wealthier nations considerably better placed to absorb displacement. This is an extraordinary humanitarian record. Al Jazeera, so reliably attentive to refugee suffering when it serves a particular narrative, has shown remarkably little interest in it here.
More glaring still is the erasure of Ethiopia’s history with Palestine. Ethiopia was among the earliest African nations to extend formal support to the Palestinian Liberation Organisation. Yasir Arafat addressed African leaders at the Organisation of African Unity in Addis Ababa; Ethiopia voted consistently in multilateral forums for Palestinian self-determination; Ethiopian diplomacy maintained active solidarity with Palestinian representatives at a time when such solidarity carried genuine political cost. This is not contested history. It is documented, verifiable, and, one might think, precisely the kind of historical context that a broadcaster claiming to champion the Palestinian cause would consider relevant when reporting on Ethiopian figures accused of normalisation.
The omission is not an oversight. Omissions of this magnitude are editorial choices, and editorial choices have politics. By stripping this history from its coverage, Al Jazeera constructs an Ethiopia that appears opportunistic, indifferent, or simply ignorant, when the historical record suggests something rather different. It is a fabrication by deletion, and it is no less dishonest for being achieved through silence rather than falsehood.

The Weaponisation of Ethical Critique
It would be foolish to dismiss the ethical questions surrounding undisclosed sponsored content. Ethiopian journalists, influencers, and public figures who accepted Israeli government-linked hospitality without transparency owe their audiences an explanation, and the institutions responsible for upholding professional standards in Ethiopian media must take this seriously. There is real work to be done here, and it must be done by Ethiopians critically, rigorously, and without defensiveness.
But Al Jazeera’s intervention in this conversation is not a contribution to that work. It is an exploitation of it. By transforming individual ethical failures into evidence of systemic national vulnerability, the network performs a rhetorical manoeuvre with which African countries are depressingly familiar: the individualisation of misconduct when the individual is sympathetic, and the nationalisation of misconduct when the nation is a useful target. The miscreant becomes the country; the country becomes the cautionary tale; and Al Jazeera, whose own editorial record includes systematic bias in its coverage of Qatar’s regional rivals, Egypt’s political upheavals, and the Syrian catastrophe, positions itself as moral arbiter.
This is audacity of a remarkable order. It ought to be said so, plainly and in public.

Reclaiming the Story
None of this analysis should be mistaken for an argument that Ethiopia’s image problems are entirely externally manufactured. There are genuine governance challenges, genuine humanitarian crises, genuine failures of accountability that Ethiopian citizens, including this columnist, have every right and obligation to scrutinise honestly. The integrity of Ethiopian public discourse depends upon exactly that kind of internal accountability. Narrative sovereignty is not a licence for self-flattery.
But there is a meaningful difference between honest internal critique and the systematic, geopolitically-motivated distortion of a country’s image by a foreign state broadcaster with its own interests to protect. Ethiopia is entitled to contest the latter even whilst engaging in the former. Indeed, the two are inseparable: a society confident enough in its own critical institutions is far better equipped to push back against external misrepresentation precisely because it has already done the harder work of honest self-examination.
What is required, practically, is investment in Ethiopian media institutions of genuine independence, in scholarly work that produces the kind of evidence-based counter-analysis demonstrated by researchers at Addis Ababa University and Jimma University, in diplomatic and cultural channels that carry Ethiopian perspectives into international conversations without waiting for the permission of hostile intermediaries. The work of Abebe, Tilahun, and Belay (2024), of Nigatu and Lidetie (2025), of Ayalew (2021) — this is exactly the kind of intellectual infrastructure upon which narrative sovereignty is built. It needs to be resourced, disseminated, and taken seriously by Ethiopian institutions at every level.

A Final Remark
Al Jazeera will, in all probability, continue to cover Ethiopia through the lens of crisis, conflict, and selective moral outrage. The incentives that produce such coverage have not changed. What can change is Ethiopia’s posture in relation to it , from passive subject to active interlocutor, from recipient of external narratives to producer of its own.
Ethiopia’s story, its complexity, its resilience, its genuinely extraordinary diplomatic and humanitarian record, is too important to be left to those with every reason to tell it badly.
It is time to tell it ourselves.

——————-//——————-

References
Abebe, T., Tilahun, M. & Belay, S. (2024) Media Framing of the Ethio-Egyptian Dispute over the First Round Water Filling of GERD: ETV and Al Jazeera in Focus. Addis Ababa University Press.

Aqalh, A. & Abdul-Nabi, M. (2026) Framing of Ethiopia–Egypt Dam Conflict: A Comparative Analysis of Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya. Emerald Publishing. DOI: 10.1108/978-1-80592-949-920261005.

Ayalew, M. (2021) Framing of the Ethio-Egypt Conflict on GERD’s Water Filling: ETV and Al-Jazeera in Focus. MA Thesis, Jimma University.

Nigatu, M. & Lidetie, A. (2025) ‘Sovereignty vs Survival: A Critical Discourse Analysis of BBC and Al-Jazeera’s Reporting on GERD Negotiations’, Cogent Arts & Humanities, 12(1). DOI: 10.1080/23311983.2025.2451486.

Ojola, D. (2025) Framing Analysis of BBC and Al Jazeera Coverage of the Ethiopia–Somaliland MoU. University of Helsinki.

About Post Author

Ethiopian Tribune editor

editor@ethiopiantribune.com

https://ethiopiantribune.com

Happy

0 0 %

Sad

0 0 %

Excited

0 0 %

Sleepy

0 0 %

Angry

0 0 %

Surprise

0 0 %