Researcher and award-winning journalist analyzing geopolitics and conflict, and investigating human rights abuses including war crimes and human trafficking in the Horn of Africa.
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2026-09-27T00:38:26Z Event JSON
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Last Notes npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem BREAKING: Eritrea has responded to Ethiopia's expulsion of ten diplomats from its embassy by announcing that it is officially severing all ties with Ethiopia, who it accuses of arming elements of the Eritrean opposition. It also denied accusations made by Ethiopia. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem All in all, it shows just how increasingly interconnected war is, especially wars in Africa and the Middle East. Also interconnected, are the suffering and resulting humanitarian catastrophes. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem This week, I appeared on German state TV Deutsche Welle to discuss possible war in the Horn of Africa. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem Appeared on the Global Dispatches podcast last week to discuss the complexities of possible war in the Horn of Africa. I discuss how none of the usual Middle East and regional powers involved in the region (🇸🇦 🇦🇪 🇹🇷 ) can be considered neutral brokers. There is space for an EU member state to bring parties to dialogue. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem This took months of research, including consuming radio, TV and print content produced from Israel. Our show zeroes in on trips to Israel made by "delegations" from South Africa, Ethiopia and Kenya. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem Hello friends, npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem Israel appears to be studying the results, country by country. For instance, following intense backlash from Moroccan journalists against colleagues who traveled to Israel, this year, Israel could not find journalists from Morocco. It sent a cultural troupe to instead. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem I'm ashamed to say this, but Ethiopian journalists have proven the most "effective" of all the Africans to be flown out to Israel. The Ethiopian airwaves and newspapers have been flooded with content that dehumanizes Palestinians, depicts Israel's genocide as a self defense move, or polishes Israel's reputation by highlighting advances in technology, agriculture or various religious heritage sites at a time when media focus should be on mass slaughter in Gaza. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem The trips have led to mixed results: in some African countries, strong backlash has occurred, as was the case with Morocco and Kenya. So, Israeli authorities have been selective: it is now selecting journalists from countries run by dictatorships, where there are no press freedoms. i.e Ethiopia. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem Since 2024, Israel has been quietly flying out delegations of journalists, influencers, politicians, even religious figures from different African states. The carefully curated trips take African visitors to tourist and religious sites, the Knesset, and Oct 7 attack sites. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem THREAD: npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem Hey friends! So as some of you know, as a journalist I cover the Horn of Africa region. As such, reporting on 🇵🇸 🇮🇱 is generally not part of my mandate. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem The criminals operate in Myanmar, because it's too dangerous for them to do so in China. Last month, 11 Chinese operators of Burmese scam camps were executed in China. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem Since 2021, a coup induced civil war, and the pandemic have created a booming scamming industry based out of Myanmar. Hundreds of scam compounds have since sprouted up, typically along the Burmese-Thai border. They target westerners with cryptocurrency and romance scams. But they are staffed by trafficked people from across Asia and Africa, who travel to Thailand believing they will be hired at well paying tech jobs in Bangkok...before being driven across the border where their ordeal begins. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem Hello fediverse friends. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem It is groundbreaking because for years, Ethiopia denied that any massacre had taken place at Axum, this despite well documented report on it by Amnesty International. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem Today, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed appeared in parliament to answer the usual softball questions and made a ground-breaking admission. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem Uneasy peace agreed; five days of fighting halted. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem With the uncertainty of a brewing war in Tigray, I didn't expect to see the Epstein files trending in the Horn of Africa, but they are. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem The fighting is thus far sporadic, but it's fierce. The fiercest we've seen since war ended. My source tells me the Ethiopian government largely vacated territory after being attacked on Thursday, and is now seeking to mobilize a Tigrayan proxy force it formed in recent months with the hoping of weakening the TPLF from the inside. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem Three days into a new conflict brewing in Ethiopia's Tigray region, the factions are either silent or somewhat cryptic thus far. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem UPDATE: as fighting breaks out in Tigray, and drone strikes are reported...Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, with rumours flying and people panicking in Tigray... orders a photo shoot. State media cameras on him, broadcasting footage as he walks the streets of Jijiga in Eastern Ethiopia, accompanied by the President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud of neighbouring Somalia and President Ismail Omar Guelleh of Djibouti. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem UPDATE: Tigray regional state TV is reporting that at 4 AM Ethiopian time (bout 6 hours ago) drones struck two vehicles in two north eastern Tigray towns, killing a driver and injuring another. It's the first civilian casualties in drone strikes in Tigray since the November 2022 ceasefire that ended the Tigray war. There are graphic images I won't share here. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem On Thursday, intense fighting between Ethiopian government forces & Tigrayan rebels broke out. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem If you missed it, the African Union's communiqué in response to the invasion of Venezuela by US forces. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem @nprofile…ywj0 a thorough and wonderful writeup on the stark differences between O Globo and other Brazilian media and (once again!) NYT and WaPost on the pro-Bolsonaro extortion racket. Some eyeopener! npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem @nprofile…ywj0 yes, I've noticed this with many the billionaire owned papers, Bezos was always going to comply and follow the money. I guess it will just become increasingly blatant now. Solidarity...here's to the remaining credible names weathering the storm, although its gonna be a very long 3 years npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem @nprofile…ywj0 Thank you for your valuable perspective! Completely makes sense with the hostage rescue or Bin Laden assault. I guess...if it's fuzzy as you say, there are no clear cut rules or regulations. I mistakenly assumed there was some sort of unwritten convention. It would definitely be interesting if it ended up being the patriotic/nationalistic pull that still sways people at major newsrooms in 2026. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem Selam! npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem THREAD: on Friday, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel would recognize Somaliland, an autonomous breakaway republic in northern Somalia, as an independent state. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem Mind you, the Sudanese government still remains excluded from these proceedings. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem The RSF have been linked to brutal genocidal violence against non-Arab ethnicities in Darfur by credible intl human rights organizations, Sudanese journalists and even the US State Department. Their involvement in sexual violence, massacres & ethnic cleansing is well documented. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem "Genocide resumes," reads this weekend's cover of @nprofile…n4hs newspaper, as El Fasher finally falls after a 500+ day siege by the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem THREAD: This investigation took up most of my 2025 to produce, and it was published in this weekend's edition of @nprofile…l6rh newspaper. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem The Continent, Africa's digital weekly pan-African newspaper, joins over 200 newsrooms in 70 countries across the world, blacking out their cover/home pages, in joint condemnation of Israel's continuing mass slaughter of Palestinian journalists, targeted for documenting genocide in their homeland. Get this weekend's edition, which also features a dispatch from Al Jazeera journalist Ansam Al-Kitaa. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem Wrote in @nprofile…uzsw about the Ethiopian doctors' labour movement. Their month long labour strike paralyzed Ethiopia's health sector. Ethiopian doctors are among the lowest paid doctors in Africa, with salaries on average ~70$ monthly. Strikers demanded better pay & fair working conditions among other things. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem While John Cena won the WWE title in Saudi Arabia this weekend, nearly a hundred migrants from Ethiopia, Egypt and Somalia were preparing for their executions on drug related charges. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem Research and work travel has me busy, and I've killed my posting activity. We're back though, take #2190381. Fediverse was missed! npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem Re: ICJ genocide case npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem She has covered everything from wars in the Horn, to press freedom in three languages. Enhancing global understanding about an underreported region, she helped bridge the info gap for millions living under totalitarian rule. As a result, for over a decade, fascist regime trolls have threatened and harassed her incessantly both on social media and even in person. But her dedication to the mission pushed her on, even when she could have asked to avoid contentious stories. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem Salem's professionalism in her coverage of our region is especially awe inspiring when you consider her story. An Eritrean born in Ethiopia, she was among thousands of deported from Ethiopia during the outbreak of war between those countries (1998-2000). The Eritrean army immediately conscripted her & prepared to send her to the war front as a child soldier. It's enough to make anyone else bitter with hate. She wrote about it in an op-ed for the NY Times in 2018. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem In full solidarity with @nprofile…lsq9 & other VOA staffers put on leave. Salem is a multi-award winning editor/reporter working in Tigrigna, Amharic AND English, serving audiences across Africa & the world. I'm proud to have been mentored by her for years, she's an inspiration, a sister from another mother. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem It's important to recognize that this shutdown attempt coincides with Russian propaganda outlet Sputnik's Africa wide expansion efforts. While the VOA offers complete editorial independence to its different language departments, Sputnik does not. It quite openly serves as a pro Moscow bullhorn, delivering sanitized and censored news that is largely dictator friendly and hardly different from the state propaganda offered by governments in countries like Eritrea. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem For instance, in recent weeks the Eritrean government was reported to have launched a new mass conscription campaign, hinting at a possible new war. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem The VOA produces news in 48 languages, among them Tigrigna, the most spoken language in Eritrea and Ethiopia's Tigray region. Since 1996, Tigrigna radio broadcasts have provided an alternative and independent source of news for Eritreans, who can tune in on radio signals that are difficult and expensive to jam. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem In Eritrea, my mother's homeland and a country in East Africa bordering Ethiopia, Sudan and Djibouti, there is no free press under the rule of former rebel commander turned President for life Isaias Afewerki. Eritrea is home to the longest jailed journalists anywhere in the world, and Reporters Without Borders ranked Eritrea 180th (last) in the world for its 2024 Press Freedom Index. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem THREAD: Most of you by now have heard news of Trump's latest Executive Order, effectively dismantling the Voice of America. I heard it from friends and colleagues at the network, among the 1,300 put on leave. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem THREAD: Lighthearted news... npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem Very proud of the rich history & heritage of the sole country to preserve its independence amid the scramble of Africa. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem Free and independent Ethiopia has never known anything other than brutal authoritarian regimes in its history following the end of the Italo Ethiopian wars. The country has waged civil war after civil war, which triggered at least two devastating man made famines that many around the world know the country for. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem The Italian invasions impacted Ethiopian society so much that in the Amharic language, the word "fascist" is often mistaken for a word describing cruelty by a leader. Mussolini and Graziani are equated with the devil incarnate. The resistance to the colonial invaders, the world's silence, all of it is enshrined in Ethiopian folklore...with Adwa 1896 being the lynchpin of Ethiopian patriotism. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem Anyways, Italian forces never managed to pacify Ethiopia, with areas beyond the capital hotbeds of Ethiopian resistance. Eventually, fighting in Ethiopia coalesced with the WW2 Mediterranean/Middle East Theatre of War. With the help of the British, the Italians were finally pushed out of East Africa by 1941. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem Inaction by the League of Nations...mirrors the UN's ineptitude today. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem Anyways, you could imagine the sentiments in Ethiopia, when news emerged in 2012 that a monument honouring Rodolfo Graziani had been built. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem From 1935-1941, Italian war crimes in Ethiopia are estimated (by Ethiopian accounts) to have cost the lives of over 500k civilians. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem Decades later, keen on erasing what he viewed as a national humiliation, Fascist leader Benito Mussolini ordered a new invasion of Ethiopia, this time with a far wider gap in the supremacy of the armaments, which included warplanes. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem "Italy's Terrible Defeat" was the NY Times headline. Afterwards Ethiopia & Italy negotiated a treaty where Italy would recognize Ethiopia's independence, in exchange for among other things, the return of thousands of Italian POWs. The 1896 treaty of Addis Ababa would lead to Ethiopia's joining the league of nations a few decades later. The stunning victory over a colonial power inspired future African countries to adopt green, yellow & red colour flags upon independence. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem Thread for history lovers. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem Turkish Bayraktar TB2s, Chinese Wing Loong drones, Iranian Mohajer-6 drones...these weapons have become core components of diplomacy with African governments. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem My paper explains that there is a causal link between the proliferation of cheap drones in Africa, and a political realignment towards Moscow that is precipitating the gradual disappearance of democratic rights. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem Did something I've never done: this is a long read policy paper for ECFR advising European lawmakers on addressing the proliferation of cheap drones in Africa, leading to the deaths of thousands of civilians, with Ethiopia as a study case. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem 🇷🇺 / 🇪🇹 npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem "Now or never!" says @nprofile…l6rh . npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem So it ended on that note. Tried my best. Drained, furious, disillusioned. The deaths of these African women were an inconvenience, a nuisance to too many bureaucrats. In the end, their collective effort to ensure these stories stay untold, that these Black lives do not matter, has proven successful. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem FYI...I'm aware that most, if not all of the Africans victims of the IDF campaign in Israel, were simply buried in Lebanon. Repatriation of bodies costs around $3,000 US, a price most families cannot afford. Governments did not offer to shoulder that burden either. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem Spent months trying to confirm accounts and present stories. I have some names and photos, but families in Ethiopia are afraid to go on record in interviews that could be perceived as criticism of the state. I struggled to find families of victims elsewhere in Africa. Without stories, consent...I have mere citations and unconfirmed accounts...like these from a story I wrote last year. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem During the pandemic, this same Lebanese Ministry of Health had a website listing not only covid19 fatalities, but even infected people by nationality. I cited this in a report back when I worked for local Ethiopian media to highlight the number of infected Ethiopian migrants in Lebanon. As many of you will know, there was an effort in too many countries around the world to link the spread of covid19 to migrants. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem And Lebanon? npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem For African governments (Ethiopia & Sierra Leone among them), the choice to stay silent and not comment...is to avoid public backlash at home & scrutiny over a failure to rescue citizens from conflict. Diplomats from these two countries have confirmed to me that they've been ordered not to state anything about casualties among their nationals in Lebanon. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem Frustrated rant: npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem THREAD: Some notes on Avera Mengistu npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem Reuters release the results of their own investigation into the killing of their journalist Issam Abdallah, confirming that the videographer was intentionally killed when an Israeli tank fired multiple shells at him, injuring six other journalists. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem Mastodon penetration in Africa remains poor, and I'm not aware if that will ever change. There are numerous factors including language, culture, poor internet quality in certain countries and the general difficulty everyone has when adapting to Mastodon. The need for safe, clean platforms not at the mercy of legal requests from authoritarian regimes or data parsing by Saudi Royal shareholders...is a pressing one and will continue to be a pressing one. I'd like to see an African uptick here. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem Great to learn of a growing African presence on the fediverse. For the first time, I came across an Algeria themed 🇩🇿 instance, perhaps the first instance set up for and by an African community here (there could be others that I'm not aware of). npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem Last week, the Journa server was taken over by new management. None of us were notified, and I found out when server updates caused account to freeze for a few hours. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem When I left Twitter, I joined the Journa server primarily because it was run by journalists with verifiable credentials who were keen on creating a safe, clean space for journalists to interact free of the toxicity that was ubiquitous on Twitter. I'm still grateful to the likes of Evan Urquhart and Adam Davidson who administered the instance and never let us down in that regard. Journa was a refreshing change from what we had grown accustomed to, especially in the wake of the Musk takeover. npub1pwdh4dqf9w4283e4vfp923zd0pzug2zp3ltcskfqg2yxntnsf3asx3kvme Zecharias Zelalem 🧵 Hey all! This is a new account, I'm still Zecharias Zelalem, freelance journalist and aspiring OSINTer providing news and analysis on the Horn of Africa for a variety of international media outlets. For the past year or so, I posted via @npub182w…su7c, but I've transitioned away from that instance. I'll be posting from this account from now on. After recent changes on the journa dot host instance, I had no choice but to set up elsewhere. Hope to continue exchanges and friendships here.
