Debuting work on Mastodon & not the other place for the first time:
My probe of drone strikes that have killed 100s in #Ethiopia 's Oromia region since October, is published in New Lines Magazine. Ethiopia's Nobel Peace Prize winning leader implicated once again.
Geolocated footage, accumulated interviews. Cheap #drones from Iran, Turkey & UAE continue to kill & maim.
Co-authored with Bileh Jelan.
https://newlinesmag.com/reportage/evidence-of-drone-strikes-against-civilian-areas-in-ethiopia/
5.
On Telegram, uploaders of the footage gave varying information, some stating that the town seen in the footage was Bile, others identified other towns that have also been hit in recent strikes. We geolocated the footage to a central bustling district of Bila, near the town hall and main bus terminal, which corresponded with what eyewitnesses told us, and further confirmed testimony that the strike occurred in an area teeming with civilians.
6.
For the #OSINT lovers, this is the location of the Bila drone strike, copy and paste the following into Google Maps: 9°21'57.1"N 35°35'41.7"E
The yellow star is where a majority of the dead can be seen in the footage. As you can see, it is a street in a densely populated urban area and barely 100 meters away from the Bocolo Mall Electronics shop and the St. Gabriel church. A drone strike in a location like this is cold blooded, callous, and was always going to hit innocent bystanders.
7.
Interviewees also spoke in detail about another strike that killed up to 80 at a school compound on Oct 22.
Ethiopian officials we reached out to refused to comment.
Read for more about how we identified a link to Turkey, the conflict in Oromia as a whole, as well as a greater understanding of the devastation to vulnerable communities, that cheaply manufactured drones can cause. There is more to the Bayraktar than the puff pieces from Ukraine.
8.
my story was published in the New Lines Magazine. Wasn't aware that they had joined the fediverse, but they have.
@newlinesmag
@newlinesmag
@zekuzelalem speaking of puff pieces about #Ukraine, also cover the extensive support given to TPLF by the government of the United States during TPLF's 27 year extremely suppressive rule of #Ethiopia
TPLF is a Marxist-Leninist organization; since when did the US support Marxism-Leninism?
@zekuzelalem Might it be possible to see the markings on that circuit board and any markings on the laser rangefinders?
If a direct link could be found to Turkey, it could be useful to publicize how that directly interferes with their own official policy toward peaceful resolution in Ethiopia.
@alltherum You might want to look into the Jan 2022 Dedebit strike, where a Turkish drone strike killed 60 at an internally displaced persons' camp. Read this detailed probe into it by the WaPost. Turkey's role is far from what it portrays it to be, and it has faced little backlash from the intl community, despite ample evidence that its armaments often target the innocent.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/interactive/2022/ethiopia-tigray-dedebit-drone-strike/
@zekuzelalem I am surprised that the conflict in #Ethiopia 🇪🇹 has not been highlighted more as between 700,000 & 800,000 people have been killed every since the #Tigray rebelled. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-63291747
Since no nukes are involved, the western nations have mostly turned a blind eye towards the conflict.
Zecharias Zelalem
Claude Rioux
ራስ ባሪያው Rass Bariaw
Mz. April Daniels
What's it to you?
capricorez
last senpai
Darnell Clayton 
plsburydoughboy (I/het/him)