Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
Robbie Corey Boulet

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Robbie Corey Boulet

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A citizen holds a placard as a group gather in Palestine Square in the Iranian capital Tehran, staging a demonstration to support Iran’s drone and missile attacks on Israel on April 15, 2024. Carrying Iranian and Palestinian flags, the demonstrators chanted slogans against Israel. (Photo by Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images)

‘Bad for business’: Gulf states scramble to avert wider war

Much is at stake for the wealthy, US-friendly Gulf states, whose expensive economic diversification plans rely on a peaceful environment for business and tourism

People attend a concert during the Balad Beast music festival in Jeddah’s oldest neighbourhood, known as Al-Balad on January 18, 2024. (Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images)

Ravers flock to dance floor in Saudi’s gateway to Mecca

Residents acknowledge some anxiety about the changes in a neighbourhood strongly associated with the annual hajj pilgrimage and Ramadan markets

Children stand under a tree on the site of a future camp for Eritrean refugees, in a rural area near the village of Dabat, 70 kilometres northeast from the city of Gondar, Ethiopia, on July 13, 2021. (Photo by EDUARDO SOTERAS / AFP) (Photo by EDUARDO SOTERAS/AFP via Getty Images)

Wounds of war cast pall on Ethiopia’s epiphany festival

Festivities were stained with signs of the war’s toll: Gondar’s hospitals teemed with wounded combatants, while families like Arega’s confronted the absence of the deceased.

Civil war: A man hangs an Ethiopian flag in Zarima after Ethiopian forces took it from Tigray rebels. (Amanuel Sileshi/AFP)

Scores of children die of starvation in Tigray hospitals

Some 29% of children are acutely malnourished, up from 9% before the war

Members of a military music band march during a rally in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on November 7, 2021, in support of the national defence forces. Five days after the government declared a state of emergency throughout the country, tens of thousands of Ethiopians vowed at a pro-government rally in Addis Ababa on November 7 to defend the capital against Tigrayan rebels and denounced diplomatic efforts to end the conflict in the north of the country. (Photo by Eduardo Soteras/AFP)

Ethiopia detains 72 World Food Programme drivers

A United Nations spokesperson said the latest detentions had occurred in the capital of Afar province, on the only functional road leading into famine-threatened Tigray.

Preparing for war: A soldier from the Ethiopian National Defence Forces during a field training session in September. Civil war broke out in the country’s Tigray region last November. Photo: Amanuel Sileshi/AFP

Mass arrests of Tigrayans sow fear in Ethiopia

Far from Ethiopia war front, mass arrests ensnare fearful Tigrayans

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. (Tiksa Negeri/Reuters)

Polls in Ethiopia’s Tigray set to escalate standoff with Abiy

In recent days Abiy’s office has instructed the Ethiopian Broadcasting Authority to call journalists working for foreign media outlets to pressure them not to cover the vote

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images)

‘US good, China bad’ is Pompeo’s message to Africa

During his African tour this past week, United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo talked up Washington’s ability to stimulate growth and entrepreneurship on the continent.

Members of Ethiopia’s Sidama ethnic group are expected to vote Wednesday to form a breakaway regional state. (Michael Tewelde/Getty Images)

Ethiopia to vote on breakaway state highlights battles over autonomy

At present, Ethiopia is partitioned into nine semi-autonomous regional states

Over the past month, security forces have embarked on a campaign of forced disarmament that pastoralist leaders say has been accompanied by shooting of civilians, mass detentions and beatings. (Tiksa Negeri/Reuters)

‘Killing without any reason’: Deaths in rural Ethiopia spark outcry

The violence is unfolding ahead of elections next year in one of the country’s most volatile and ethnically diverse areas

The country says it has planted nearly three billion trees already since May. (Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

Going green: Ethiopia’s bid to plant four billion trees

Abiy is leading by example as Ethiopia plans to plant a mind-boggling four billion trees by October

The unofficial green, blue and red flag of the advocated region for the Sidama ethnic group. (Michael Tewelde/AFP/Getty Images)

Ethiopia faces showdown over push for new region

The Sidama say they plan to unilaterally declare their own federal state this week

Violence flared on Saturday afternoon in Amhara, one of nine autonomous regions, when a “hit squad” attacked a meeting of top officials, Abiy’s office said Sunday. (AMISOM)

Ethiopia army chief, local officials killed amid regional ‘coup’ bid

Violence flared on Saturday afternoon in Amhara, one of nine autonomous regions, when a ‘hit squad’ attacked a meeting of top officials