A man walks by a destroyed tank near Arbit, Ethiopia (Photo by J. Countess/Getty Images) Not long after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, when I found it difficult to talk about much else, I attended an international conference. There I got into conversation with a woman who worked for one of the large charities providing relief to war zones in Africa. Politely but firmly she complained that the consequence of the fixation with Ukraine was that Africa’s many, ongoing, disastrous wars were once again being ignored. She particularly had in mind Ethiopia’s war in its Tigray province.
All the heat and light about Gaza, and the humanitarian crisis and social media angst about the Palestinians screaming genocide, yet far more suffering and people dying in Africa (or Syria still) and not a peep. There is a disturbing hypocrisy in all this when taken in its totality.
But what is more insidious is the conflicts in Ethiopia and Sudan are proxy wars between KSA and Iran, for example, just as the Iranians are supporting the Houthis. It is all interconnected, but most are too busy or lazy to put the puzzle pieces together.
I believe it was CBS News reporter Dan Rather who coined the term "Interval Lands" for places to which most of the world only paid attention at infrequent intervals.
Thanks for using your burgeoning platform to draw more attention to these crises. it feels like there must be a larger explanation of why this region (Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, and also Yemen and Syria) is suffering from quite a long-running series of catastrophes (conflicts and humanitarian crises). If you think that's true, what do you think the explanation might be? It is because of climate change? It feels very stark, looking at Our World in Data, that the reduction in global poverty hasn't been reflected in these countries. As you allude to here, from our comfortable berths in the UK it feels like there's so little we can do to make a difference.
Thanks for this thoughtful piece. Innocent citizens of means from Sudan, Ethiopia and others who are not able to fly out have taken desperate measures to escape wars like these. This then fuels much of the “migrant” crisis that Europe, with a convenient sea border, finds on its horizons.
Thank you for this, upsetting but important
All the heat and light about Gaza, and the humanitarian crisis and social media angst about the Palestinians screaming genocide, yet far more suffering and people dying in Africa (or Syria still) and not a peep. There is a disturbing hypocrisy in all this when taken in its totality.
But what is more insidious is the conflicts in Ethiopia and Sudan are proxy wars between KSA and Iran, for example, just as the Iranians are supporting the Houthis. It is all interconnected, but most are too busy or lazy to put the puzzle pieces together.
Lisa Schlein ( the well known Voice of America journalist) has recently been covering the situation in Sudan. Two of her latest articles:
WHO: Coming Lean Season in Sudan Could Trigger Catastrophic Hunger
https://www.voanews.com/a/who-coming-lean-season-in-sudan-could-trigger-catastrophic-hunger/7487064.html
UN Report Accuses Sudan’s Warring Parties of Crimes Against Civilians
https://www.voanews.com/a/un-report-accuses-sudan-s-warring-parties-of-crimes-against-civilians/7500265.html
Lisa Schlein Muckrack page:
https://muckrack.com/lisa-schlein/articles
I believe it was CBS News reporter Dan Rather who coined the term "Interval Lands" for places to which most of the world only paid attention at infrequent intervals.
Thanks for using your burgeoning platform to draw more attention to these crises. it feels like there must be a larger explanation of why this region (Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, and also Yemen and Syria) is suffering from quite a long-running series of catastrophes (conflicts and humanitarian crises). If you think that's true, what do you think the explanation might be? It is because of climate change? It feels very stark, looking at Our World in Data, that the reduction in global poverty hasn't been reflected in these countries. As you allude to here, from our comfortable berths in the UK it feels like there's so little we can do to make a difference.
Thanks for this thoughtful piece. Innocent citizens of means from Sudan, Ethiopia and others who are not able to fly out have taken desperate measures to escape wars like these. This then fuels much of the “migrant” crisis that Europe, with a convenient sea border, finds on its horizons.
I would just note that Abiy has escalated
things greatly by trying to centralize authority by unilaterally
centralizing political-military power by integrating all
regional militias into the national defense establishment. In so
doing he is pre-empting civil democratic process for determining
the proper national-federal balance, perhaps making such a dialogue
impossible in defiance of the ethnic-confederal 1995 constitution.