Zecharias ZelalemThe most shockingly tone deaf event gets underway Monday. The United Nations is set to host its annual Internet Governance Forum, where tech gurus & world leaders discuss greater connectivity & human rights, in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. This despite Ethiopia maintaining a 2 year phone and #internet blackout impacting 7 million people in its war torn Tigray region, where civil war killed over half a million between 2020-2022. On par with hosting a women's rights summit in Saudi Arabia.
In addition to horrendous atrocities and famine, the Tigray region's ongoing communications blackout has devastated the region. With residents cut off from the outside world since November 2020, Tigrayans living abroad are unaware of how family and friends are coping, many marked two years since last hearing the voices of their parents. I wrote a story on this for Thomson Reuters back in September.
https://www.reuters.com/article/ethiopia-internet-shutdown-idUSL8N2ZM09X
Berkubernetus