When the War Ends
NEED TO KNOW
When the War Ends
ETHIOPIA
Alemetu, pregnant, was trying desperately to fall asleep when the men from the rebel Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) came for her.
Held hostage for four weeks in an abandoned school in Ethiopia’s Oromia region, she was beaten with a horsewhip and suspended upside-down from a tree for hours. To release her, the rebels asked for a ransom of 110,000 birr (about $1,900).
That’s almost double what the average person in Ethiopia earns in a year.
As the Guardian reported, her family tried valiantly to raise the funds – but also had to pay almost as much to free her uncle, a local farmer. Meanwhile, after they paid, the rebel group – which says it is trying to get independence for the region – set fire to her home.
Alemetu’s experience is part of the kidnappings and general lawlessness that have become the norm in Ethiopia in the wake of a civil war that ended two years ago. In March, for example, 16-year-old schoolgirl Mahlet Teklay was kidnapped in the northern regional state of Tigray. When her parents couldn’t pay the $51,800 ransom, the kidnappers killed her.
And last month, three public buses carrying at least 167 passengers were traveling to the capital Addis Ababa, bringing students home for the summer holidays from Debark University in the Amhara region, Deutsche Welle reported. Gunmen hijacked the buses and demanded thousands of dollars in ransom for the victims. Many are still being held.
“It is very rare to find a family who has not been affected by kidnapping,” Alemetu told the Guardian after being released. “The government has no control.”
Once only occurring in certain areas of Western Oromia where the OLA operates, kidnappings have spread to war-torn Tigray, Amhara and elsewhere in the country outside of the capital. They have also moved from being political to more financial – where once only officials and government employees were targeted, now no one is spared, wrote the Africa Defense Forum.
The government of Abiy Ahmed Ali, Ethiopia’s prime minister, does not talk much about the kidnapping “pandemic.” Instead, it touts its so-called successes in ending the war in Tigray, and turns the focus on the economy, specifically how it has attracted donors and investors, observers said.
For example, in July, the president, winner of the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, announced a series of market-friendly reforms including the floating of its currency, intended to open the doors to a $3.4 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund, wrote Africa Confidential.
Abiy is hoping to turn the page on the war and signal to investors and donors that Ethiopia is back in business. But that’s wishful thinking, says the Hill. Already, since his float of the currency, the dirr has lost 60 percent of its value against the dollar, with prices rising so fast that restaurant menus no longer list them, ABC News wrote.
Even though the war with Tigray ended officially in 2022, fighting continues there – but also in Oromia and also in Amhara, where government troops battle regional militias known as the Fano. The fighting threatens to turn into another civil war, wrote Foreign Policy. Meanwhile, talks with both rebel groups have gone nowhere.
If anything, the violence is becoming more entrenched, not just in these regions but elsewhere, too, wrote the Economist: “It’s metastasizing,” a Western diplomat told the magazine. “It’s quite, quite terrifying.”
It’s not just kidnappings; murders and rapes are spiraling, too, the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect wrote.
“We have heard repeated stories about women being gang raped – being raped by one person is starting to be perceived as trivial,” Birhan Gebrekirstos, a lecturer at Mekelle University in Tigray, told the New Humanitarian, “we’re getting used to these stories.”
Part of the reason for the violence is that the rebel groups need money, wrote the Institute for Security Studies. Another is that the government has weak control over some regions. Instead, security forces often participate in the violence, or collaborate, even cut deals with the bandits. And it’s become a buyer’s choice of which rebel groups to join because there are few opportunities for the young in the country, which has been in the throes of an economic crisis for years. In some places, the situation is so dire, that famine looms, according to the International Rescue Committee.
Abiy is missing the point, said Al Jazeera. Investors are not interested in a country where lawlessness and corruption are out of control. Foreign and local businesses there are already being stymied when trying to move goods and workers, or seeing their workers kidnapped. Africa Intelligence reported in June that France-based Meridiam’s $2 billion geothermal project in Oromia is being abandoned because of insecurity.
Meanwhile, Abiy wants to attract high-paying tourists, recently meeting with the head of hotel giant, Marriot. But no visitor wants to visit a country where the possibility of being kidnapped is so high, say analysts.
Meanwhile, the instability of the country is dragging the entire Horn of Africa into it.
In recent months, “Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has stirred up new tensions with neighboring Somalia, become entangled in Sudan’s civil war (on the rebel’s side), and even made threatening gestures toward Eritrea, which had been Abiy’s ally in the Tigrayan war,” Foreign Affairs magazine wrote. “Meanwhile, the government’s primary foreign patron, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has been funneling arms and money to Ethiopia, as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey have been doing the same to Eritrea, Somalia, and the Sudanese Armed Forces, threatening to drag the region into a proxy conflict.”
THE WORLD, BRIEFLY
Cliff’s Edge
ISRAEL/LEBANON
Israel carried out a series of airstrikes on Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon Sunday, an escalation that has raised fears of an all-out regional war breaking out in the wake of fighting that started with Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct.7, Axios reported.
The strikes, which Israel called “preemptive,” came after US and Israeli intelligence services said earlier in the week that Hezbollah was preparing for a major missile and drone attack against Israel.
In recent weeks, the Iran-backed Islamist paramilitary group Hezbollah announced it would strike Israel in retaliation for Israeli forces assassinating its top commander, Fuad Shukr, in the Lebanese capital Beirut.
On Sunday, more than 100 Israeli fighter jets were deployed to destroy 40 launching compounds, resulting in the destruction of thousands of rocket and missile launchers aimed at both northern and central Israel.
Hezbollah responded by launching more than 320 rockets and deploying multiple drones toward Israeli military bases and a security compound in the northern Israeli city of Tel Aviv. The Lebanon-based group countered that its attack was successful.
Despite the heavy exchange, no casualties were reported in Israel, while Lebanese authorities confirmed that three people were killed in the strikes, according to CBS News. While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was reported to have said, “This is not the end of the verse”. Israel and Hezbollah were reported early Monday to have exchanged messages via intermediaries calling for de-escalation, Sky News reported.
While Israel said that the threat was thwarted, Hezbollah asserted that its retaliation was effective and hinted at the possibility of further action.
The recent exchange comes as the conflict in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas, another Iran-backed group, is entering its eleventh month. It began after Hamas and its allies launched a surprise attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and kidnapping more than 250 others.
The Israeli military response against the Palestinian enclave has resulted in a humanitarian crisis and the death of at least 40,000 people, according to officials in Hamas-controlled Gaza.
Fears of the conflict spilling across the region have grown following the strike that killed Shukr and the operation in Iran that killed Hamas’ political leader Ismail Haniyeh late last month. Israel has not confirmed its involvement.
Iran and its proxies have pledged to retaliate for Haniyeh’s killing, CNN noted.
The attacks came as US, Israeli, Qatari, and Egyptian diplomats are still locked in negotiations in Cairo to conclude a ceasefire deal in Gaza and gain the release of Israeli hostages.
A Failure of Moderation
FRANCE
French authorities detained Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov Saturday over his app’s lack of moderation, an arrest that comes as countries and governments are grappling with how to regulate social media and messaging platforms, Newsweek reported.
Durov was traveling from Azerbaijan in his private jet when police arrested him at Le Bourget Airport outside Paris. His arrest follows a French probe into Telegram’s moderation policies and potential legal infractions.
Specifically, the investigation is looking into the app’s alleged lack of content moderation that has allowed criminal activities, including fraud, drug trafficking, cyberbullying, and organized crime, to flourish via the app.
Founded in 2013, Telegram boasts more than 900 million active users and is influential in Russia and Ukraine. The platform is known for its strong encryption features and user privacy which have appealed to many users seeking secure communication channels, such as activists, journalists and government dissidents.
But these features have come under criticism by national governments and law enforcement agencies, who complain that the platform has been exploited by criminal and other malicious actors.
Durov, originally from Russia, gained prominence as the founder of VK, the “Russian Facebook.” He left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to shut down opposition communities on VK and turn over data to the authorities.
He has previously claimed that both the United States and Russia have demanded he compromise Telegram’s privacy features, including attempts by US authorities to introduce a “backdoor” into the app to spy on its users.
Following the US Capitol riots on Jan. 6, 2021, Telegram received conflicting requests from US legislators regarding user data, which Durov ignored due to their complexity.
Despite fleeing Russia, his arrest prompted criticism from Russian officials. The Russian embassy in France demanded consular access and urged France to ensure Durov’s rights were protected. Russian officials and bloggers have criticized France’s actions, with some labeling the country as moving toward a totalitarian society, Al Jazeera noted.
Durov’s detention also came amid broader global concerns about regulating social media and messaging platforms. The European Union’s Digital Services Act, for instance, requires tech companies to better police illegal content, including hate speech.
France has been proactive in holding tech companies accountable for the content on their platforms.
Meanwhile, many Telegram users are watching closely how the case unfolds, with some noting that the situation could influence the app’s operations and how other countries approach the regulation of similar platforms.
‘Consolidation of Fraud’
VENEZUELA
Venezuela’s Supreme Court declared incumbent President Nicolás Maduro the winner of the July 28 presidential elections, despite the opposition’s claims of fraud and criticism about the court’s impartiality, the Wall Street Journal reported.
The court’s verdict came nearly a month after the country’s election commission said Maduro secured a third term, defeating opposition candidate Edmundo González.
The opposition has cried foul and called for the release of voting data. Mass demonstrations erupted over Maduro’s victory, prompting authorities to launch a crackdown that has killed more than 20 people and led to the detention of at least 2,000 others.
Maduro called on the court to verify the results amid domestic and international criticism.
Despite threats and arrests, the opposition effectively collected voting tally sheets from 80 percent of polling stations, showing Maduro won about 30 percent of the vote compared with González, who won 67 percent.
These tally sheets were marked with QR codes and are difficult to forge, observers told the Associated Press.
But in its ruling, the high court – packed with government loyalists – countered that the tally sheets published online by the opposition were forged.
The verdict is seen as an attempt to legitimize Maduro’s leadership, as well as solidify support within his coalition and prevent defections.
The court’s decision received criticism from the United States and the United Nations over the tribunal’s lack of impartiality. Left-wing Chilean President Gabriel Boric condemned the court’s decision, calling it a “consolidation of fraud.” He urged other leftist governments to confront Maduro.
Meanwhile, the leaders of Brazil and Mexico are attempting to mediate the dispute and have urged Maduro to present physical evidence of his victory.
Following the verdict, the Venezuelan government continued its crackdown on the opposition as officials ordered González to testify in a probe regarding claims that his campaign spread panic by disputing the election results.
Both González and María Corina Machado, another opposition leader, have gone into hiding due to threats of arrest.
DISCOVERIES
Blowing the Whistle
Scientists from the University of Alaska uncovered a surprising new twist in the story of lightning.
Researchers Vikas Sonwalkar and Amani Reddy identified a previously unknown type of electromagnetic wave, dubbed a “specularly reflected whistler,” which allows lightning energy to penetrate much deeper into space than previously thought.
Whistlers are a type of electromagnetic wave produced by lightning strikes – named for the whistling sound they make when converted to audio. These waves travel along Earth’s magnetic field lines and scientists have long believed they stay close to the planet’s surface.
But the new study showed that some of this energy bounces off the ionosphere – a charged layer about 55 miles above Earth – and shoots up into the magnetosphere, reaching altitudes of up to 20,000 kilometers. The magnetosphere, a region dominated by Earth’s magnetic field, plays a crucial role in protecting our planet from harmful solar winds.
The scientific duo used data from NASA’s Van Allen Probes, which orbited Earth from 2012 to 2019, as well as earlier studies dating back to the 1960s. The findings suggested that these waves are not a rare phenomenon but occur frequently, and may play a larger role in space weather than previously recognized.
But the paper’s implications are significant because this additional energy can charge and accelerate particles in the magnetosphere. In turn, this produces electromagnetic radiation that can damage satellites and pose health risks to astronauts.
“We as a society are dependent on space technology,” Sonwalkar explained. “Modern communication … and spacecraft with astronauts aboard encounter harmful energetic particles of the radiation belts, which can damage electronics and cause cancer.”
The authors noted that the study opens new avenues for research into how lightning influences space weather.
Jacob Bortnik, a space physicist at UCLA who was not involved in the study, told New Scientist that “lightning was always believed to be a little bit of a smaller player,” but this research opens the door to reevaluating its impact on the magnetosphere.
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