Notices by Zecharias Zelalem (zekuzelalem@dair-community.social), page 2

Anyways, the BBC managed to geolocate the site of the three strikes, to a 300 meter radius at this location.

Have a look at it for yourselves. Small town, densely populated residential area with roads crisscrossing it, and standard sheet metal cap roofs on structures.

Any strike here was always going to slaughter the innocent. You can't collateral damage your way out of this.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/BU4aoqug4JDLDfXr5

@hallvors well...there would be a very long list of candidates, from Kissinger to Aung Sang Suu Kyi. But I think it should be done eventually. Because the peace prize's reputation is in the gutter.

Something that puzzled me initially:

The story is published by the BBC's Amharic language service. Why has it not been translated and reproduced for English language audiences?

Answer: Ethiopians are not an English speaking people. So stories on atrocities in our country won't lead to huge numbers of hits on the BBC website that say, killings in an English speaking country like Kenya would bring in.

It was an editorial decision not to produce an English version. An immoral one.

There are graphic photos and videos of the aftermath I'm not uploading here. The BBC has chosen not to do so either.

In one video, a young man in an Ethiopian national football team jersey helps collect the bodies of what I assume were his teammates.

In another, dozens of body bags containing the remains of victims are held in a storage unit.

It's the umpteenth of these horrific strikes from the sky, still too horrific to fathom.

News: BBC is reporting that on Tuesday, Ethiopian airforce drones killed over 50 civilians in the Amhara town of Zibist.

According to the report, the strikes targeted a marketplace, the town's health center, and a primary school. Among the dead, pregnant women who were receiving treatment at the health center, and 13 youths who were playing football.

The town is not under rebel control, which has residents confused as to why it was attacked.

https://www.bbc.com/amharic/articles/c5y3l8vkldlo

For more background on the detrimental impact cheap drones are having on human rights, democracy and basic freedoms across Africa...my reporting for Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail might help. Published in April.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-cheap-imported-drones-fuel-a-surge-of-deaths-in-africa/

For information on the atrocities the protesters are linking the UAE to, my visual investigation last month into the February 19th drone massacre of 30+ Amhara civilians by a drone likely procured by Ethiopia via the UAE.

https://dair-community.social/@ZekuZelalem/113297320820657531

"UAE! Stop sending drones!"

That's the call heard at a bazaar in London, promoting tourism to Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Several Ethiopian protesters loudly disrupted the event, denouncing the UAE's ongoing delivery of armed drones to Ethiopia.

Ethiopian airforce drone attacks have killed hundreds of civilians in the Amhara region.

The protesters accused Emirati President Mohammed bin Zayed of complicity.

The UAE has been among the strongest backers of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

@webhat @bess @jon Ah. Legal fine print, makes sense. Import fees and taxes on equipment for traveling a whole 2 meters into another state. Guess we'll need UN peacekeepers to do the road paving.

Whole topic is interesting honestly

@jon still negotiating a bilateral street cleaning treaty that doesn't infringe on national sovereignty I suppose!

@bess @jon this is wild! You could frame the pettiness of refusing to repair the whole road as "respecting another country's sovereignty" 😂 as someone who hails from a region torn by a half century of border wars, this is so fascinating

@timnitGebru Uff...a huge if hafteye, hang in there.

@bess @jon I wonder how that would work for repairing potholes that stretch into two countries 😁

@jon Whose taxpayers pay the salaries of the street cleaners?!

@badri Here's a link to the live broadcast, bout 3 hours long
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11M4-HvIWUE

Mehdi Hassan went on Zeteo to offer his take on what the Democrats could become, post Harris defeat.

He believes that defeat won't lead to the party making changes, defunding war and catering to their leftist base. Quite the contrary apparently!

Could we see the divide between the US political aisle disappear?

Lots of gloomy takes.

I never would have thought someone's political career could survive so many scandals. Convictions and the whole coup thing.

Some 4 years we have ahead of us.

I definitely didn't see this coming after the events of 6/1/21.

It ain't over, but it's clear which watch parties have a more festive atmosphere right about now.

A lot of doom and gloom among Fediverse Americans, from a few minutes of scrolling. No prize for guessing which app is party central right now.

#USElections
🇺🇸

https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024

Anyways, Quincy Jones put his talents to great use, bringing in the greatest musicians of all time together, producing a lovely song, saving lives and staving off famine.

Wishing his friends and family strength. He never looked like a man in his nineties for a single day! RIP Icon.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cjr4n2490r9o

Those who were alive then still use the phrase "የ77 ድርቅ" (translates to "the 77 drought," the Ethiopian calendar is about 7 years behind the Gregorian one), to refer to the era as a whole, when the Soviet backed communist regime decided blocking aid might be an effective war tool.

It was concealed well, until a BBC report blasted horrific images to the world.

We grew up believing this was part of our past.

Then in 2020, a Nobel Peace Prize winner said "hold my beer."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/703958.stm

"We are the World"

2009 VOA story about what is known as the greatest night in pop that brought Michael Jackson, Lionel Ritchie and so many other greats together to create the music that raised $64 million for famine victims in Ethiopia.

Producer: the one and only, Quincy Jones.

Some legacy! One that younger generations in Ethiopia are struggling to remember, due to efforts to erase the traumatic memory of the horrific 1984 famine.

Rest easy Q! God bless & thank you.
https://www.voanews.com/a/we-are-the-world-79429907/416483.html