In 1899, Joseph Conrad in Heart of Darkness, described events in the Congo as “the vilest scramble for loot that ever disfigured the history of human conscience”. Little did he know. 1/.The story of the Congo is one of untold suffering and spectacular plunder. ---Long Thread---

We never know how high we are.Till we are asked to rise.And then if we are true to plan.Our statures touch the skies. The Heroism we recite.Would be a normal thing.Did not ourselves the Cubits warp.For fear to be a King . —Emily Dickinson. Wishing y'all a happy and blessed 2021!

50/.“Until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship will remain but a fleeting illusion.”.--Haile Selassie, 1963. Full speech:

49/.As bombs rained on Tigray and thousands got displaced for the umpteenth time in a century, experts have warned of a regional crisis and even a Yugoslavia-like implosion. One can only hope that a truce is reached and peace restored.

48/.On Nov 04, 2020, PM Ahmed accused the TPLF of carrying out an attack on the Ethiopian Military's Northern Command in Mekelle, which the TPLF denied. This quickly escalated into a full-blown conflict in a region that the PM once described as 'the womb of Ethiopia' (Tigray).

47/.In Mar 2020, PM Ahmed postponed the national elections scheduled for Aug 29, to 2021 citing the Covid-19 pandemic. This did not go down well in Tigray where the TPLF defied the PM and held regional elections in September.

46/.Later in 2019, the TPLF, which had been in power since 1991, felt sidelined by the PM and withdrew from the EPRDF. Things had been a little tense between PM Ahmed and TPLF chief, Debretsion Gebremichael (pic) whom PM Ahmed beat in the 2018 elections.

45/.While PM Ahmed went on to win the Nobel for his peace and reform efforts, things did not start out so rosy. In June 2018, a grenade was hurled at his stage at a rally and in June 2019, the Ethiopian military chief was killed in an attempted coup.

44/.After his death in 2012, Zenawi was succeeded by Hailemariam Desalegn (Wolayta) who resigned in Feb 2018 after 3 years of protests calling for economic and political reforms esp. in Oromia and Amhara. Desalegn was replaced by Dr. Abiy Ahmed (Oromo).

43/.Under Meles Zenawi, the econ grew (8.8% a yr btw 2000-10), foreign investment flowed in and major strides were made in education, health and development. His record is however tainted by his admin’s intolerance of dissent and its authoritarianism.

42/.At about the time in 1991 that Addis was falling to the EPRDF, Asmara in Eritrea was falling to the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front (EPLF). Eritrea’s 30-yr war of independence ended and in 1993, they voted for a state independent from Ethiopia.

41/.The fall of the Derg gave way to the TPLF’s Meles Zenawi (Tigrayan) as president of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, with the army and intelligence services dominated by Tigrayans. In 1995, Zenawi became PM under a new constitution.

40/.In Zimbabwe, Mengistu became a security consultant to President Robert Mugabe and even advised Mugabe to pre-empt a possible mass revolt by clearing slums in Operation Murambatsvina in 2005. He was sentenced to life in prison, in absentia, in 2007.

39/.The fall of the Soviet Union, the 1985 famine and relentless assaults by the Ethiopian people's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), a coalition of rebel groups led by the TPLF, eventually defeated the Derg in May 1991. Mengistu immediately fled into exile in Zimbabwe.

38/.The Mengistu regime used napalm (applied to horrific effect by the US in Vietnam) against citizens in rebel-held areas such as Eritrea and Tigray, leading to hundreds of thousands fleeing into Sudan as refugees in both 1978 and 1985 (famine year).

37/.The Ethiopian civil war kicked off in 1974. Insurgencies erupted in all 14 regions and despite Soviet support, the govt suffered heavy casualties incl the loss of 3 battalions to Eritrean rebels at Nakfa and 4 divisions to the TPLF in Tigray in 1988.

36/.Between 1977 – 1991, the Russians sent 17,000+ Cubans to Ethiopia and Mengistu spent $9bn on Soviet arms shipments… . or as Michela Wrong puts it, “$5,400 worth of weapons for every man, woman and child in the country.”. [Mengistu with Fidel and Raul Castro, Havana, 1975]

35/.Sidebar: History was made at the Live Aid concert at Wembley on July 13, 1985 when Queen's Freddie Mercury rendered his legendary performance. Others that performed: U2, David Bowie, Elton John, Dire Straits, Paul McCartney, Sting and Phil Collins.

34/.On Oct 23, 1984, the BBC’s Michael Buerk (and Mo Amin) reported on a ‘biblical famine’ in Ethiopia, sparking massive relief efforts including Live Aid and USA for Africa. Fatalities: 200k – 1mn. That year, Ethiopia spent $1.2bn on soviet arms.

33/.Between 1976-78, “the Derg plunged Ethiopia into an unprecedented era of indiscriminate detentions, assassinations, extra-judicial killings and summary executions,” wiping out some of the nation’s best and brightest.

32/.Named for the 1918 mass killings by the Bolsheviks in Russia, the Red Terror targeted anyone the Derg viewed as an enemy including members of the Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Party (EPRP), the All-Ethiopia Socialist Movement (MEISON) & the TPLF.