"All the soldiers seen dancing in the video were soon killed in battle. Apart from the commander, all were African."
My latest, on the Africans fighting in Ukraine 👇
www.economist.com/middle-east-...
"Cash reserves at the airport in Juba, the capital, are dwindling. Fuel is scarce. Licensed air-traffic controllers have left.
The alarming state of South Sudan’s only international airport is a symbol of the country’s wider malaise."
My report from South Sudan 👇
www.economist.com/middle-east-...
In July 2018, shortly after #Abiy became PM, #Epstein texts #Bannon:
"Note, I spoke with the president of #Ethiopia and #Eritrea , they have agreed not to do any
more work with the Chinese. ! as they now understand the trick.
In fact there is a possiblitiy of the two countries becoming one".
🫠
I this week's issue of @economist.com I wrote about how local politics threatens to undo Nigeria's multimillion dollar Museum of West African Art in Benin City 👇
www.economist.com/middle-east-...
New from me, feat. Prince of Darkness and his “best pal”
Tigray’s interim president described the fighting as “something resembling an all-out war”.
That outcome appears to have been averted, for now. Yet the risk of further violence remains uncomfortably high.
Our piece on the latest war-scare in Ethiopia👇
www.economist.com/middle-east-...
If Jeff Bezos could afford to spend $75 million on the Melania movie & $500 million for a yacht to sail off to his $55 million wedding to give his wife a $5 million ring, please don't tell me he needed to fire one-third of the Washington Post staff.
Democracy dies in oligarchy.
My piece from last week's issue of @economist.com is about how one of the most widespread assumptions about trade in Africa - that African countries barely trade with each other - is, in some important ways, wrong:
www.economist.com/middle-east-...
The regime’s paramilitary forces are conducting a campaign of ethnic cleansing.
My piece in @economist.com last week on Nigeria's emerging domestic energy champions, with reporting from Lagos 👇
Great to see our investigation in the Guardian!
Portland declined to comment on our findings.
They told the Guardian they didn't have a relationship with the subcontractor we linked them to, claimed to follow guidelines for all "social media platforms".
(Wikipedia is not a social media platform)
Happy 25th to @wikipedia.org, one of the great wonders of the digital world!
While #Wikipedia's volunteers are good at disrupting influence ops, PR firms still try to manipulate pages for the rich & powerful.
My latest, for @tbij.bsky.social 🧵
www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2026...
Marco Rubio is reportedly saying Maduro will stand trial in US courts.
Which means it’s now the US administration’s position that US courts can hold foreign presidents, but not the US president, accountable for crimes.
Today the city appears eerily silent. Seen from the sky, once bustling markets are empty and overgrown with vegetation. The streets are devoid of traffic, except for vehicles known to be used by the RSF. Water points, too, appear deserted:
www.economist.com/interactive/...
So, El Fasher looks like one of the worst single event atrocities to happen this century so far, but the evidence has come in such a trickle it seems to only now be getting verified
“They packed our children like cows into the bush,” says Chukwuelota Mmadubueze, whose son was 1 of 300 abducted from his school in north-west Nigeria last month.
My latest, on Nigeria's kidnapping epidemic (filling in for @oreogunb.bsky.social while she's away) 👇
www.economist.com/middle-east-...
My piece in this week's issue looks at the rapid rise of Mormonism in Africa, where the small but influential American sect is building temples and impacting politics from Sierra Leone to Ghana to Kenya 👇
www.economist.com/middle-east-...
I guest wrote this week's War Room, our defence newsetter, on the lessons for the Horn of Africa from Europe, 1914 👇
view.e.economist.com?qs=df4e468c9...
"A putsch favouring the government would be unusual. But unusual things happen in Guinea-Bissau."
My latest 👇
www.economist.com/middle-east-...
From Ukraine to Haiti to Congo, Erik Prince’s mercenary services are everywhere, and his worldview is more influential among America’s powerholders
"Contrary to some recent news headlines,JNIM, the Sahel’s pre-eminent jihadist group, is not about to follow in the footsteps of jihadists in Afghanistan and Syria and seize power in the capital."
My latest
www.economist.com/middle-east-...
I am moving to Dubai because England is so dangerous. www.ft.com/content/9bf6...
Three years ago one of the deadliest conflicts of the 21st century ended when Ethiopia’s government struck a peace deal with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. Now it is unravelling
"But a covert proxy war between Ethiopia, Eritrea and their allies has, in effect, already begun. It needs worryingly little to explode into the open."
www.economist.com/middle-east-...
One feature is the role of outside powers, including some Gulf states, which exert influence over their proxies. The best chance for de-escalation lies with America and these outside powers, who must push their allies to stop fighting and start talking again.
www.economist.com/leaders/2025...
A groundbreaking, eye-opening, and much needed investigation into Tigray's postwar goldrush: one of the most overlooked causes of the region's calamitous law and order breakdown—and its slide back to war.
www.theglobeandmail.com/world/articl...
a must-read on this topic
The ‘Wolqayt question’ from c. 2015 to the Tigray war: agrarian claims in Amhara nationalism
Latest articles in JEAS:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
