In recent months there’s been a lot of talk about the ‘dark’ fleet, the ‘shadow’ or the ‘ghost’ fleet. For a while now I have felt that people use these terms without really examining their origins nor the assumptions that come with invoking them, so I wrote about why I think this is a problem:
🚨 New Publication in International Political Sociology:
#Sociability, #Emotions, and Encounters with the Uncommon Other: World-Making at the Rokumeikan
Find the paper here (open-access):
academic.oup.com/ips/article/...
On geopolitics around Iran, I trust no one's opinion more than I do Trita's
A complete and clear account of British Museum orientalist complicity with settler colonialism and its cowardice.
everydayorientalism.wordpress.com/2026/02/25/t...
‘Soldiers at Fort Bragg and another special forces base, Fort Campbell, are more likely to die of drug overdoses than the average US citizen. Dependency on narcotics isn’t the only after-effect of war.’
@lalehkhalili.bsky.social on the symbiosis of drugs and war.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
This is such an incredible piece, with soooo many amazing links and so much info that I didn’t even know (e.g. Pinochet being involved in drug-running!): prospect.org/2025/12/23/n...
M23 occupation has had a devastating effect on communities in eastern DR Congo. But in cities like Uvira, civilians face a different threat: pro-government militias who claim to be fighting the rebels.
Some excellent recent work by my research partner Ben Mkalama.
www.techpolicy.press/how-digital-...
www.dgb-bildungswerk.de/gute-arbeit/...
Our own recent works @financeandspace.bsky.social and SER @sasemeeting.bsky.social :
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
academic.oup.com/ser/article/...
The Continent 27 SEPTEMBER 2025 | ISSUE 215 15 INVESTIGATION The Djiboutian massacre Ethiopia won’t acknowledge Djibouti drones killed eight people on the other side of its border with Ethiopia. Djibouti claimed they were terrorists. Ethiopia said nothing. This investigation found that some of the dead were Ethiopians, revealing another episode in Addis’s tendency to let its neighbours kill its citizens with impunity. Crossing the line: Djibouti’s bombs landed inside Ethiopia, killing civilians – not armed fighters. zecharias zelalem On 30 January this year, a drone manned from Djibouti dropped a bomb on a funeral gathering in Siyaru, a remote, semi-arid village near the Ethiopia Djibouti border. As rescuers rushed in, a second bomb dropped. And then a third. At least eight people were killed, including three children. Several others were injured. Given the village’s remoteness, the incident might have gone unreported if graphic images of the dead hadn’t spread across Ethiopian social media. A statement from the Djibouti’s defence ministry said the drone struck rebel fighters from the Front for the
Restoration of Unity and Democracy (Frud), a Djiboutian political party with a military wing. It has been fighting for Afar interests in Djibouti since the 1990s. The Afar are a community split by the colonial border separating Ethiopia, Djibouti, and Eritrea. “Eight terrorists were neutralised on site,” said a Djibouti military statement. “Unfortunately, collateral damage among Djiboutian civilians in the area has been documented.” International media, including Voice of America, Agence France Presse, and Radio France Internationale reported this version of events. Now, new findings from an open In recovery: Mariam Mohammed Abdullah was injured in the drone strike. source investigation by The Continent reveal a different reality. The bombs landed inside Ethiopia, not in Djibouti, and civilians – not armed fighters – were killed. That distinction matters. It shows Ethiopia is once again tolerating a foreign military targeting its own citizens, as it did with Eritrea during the Tigray conflict. A transparent lie Even before the ink could dry on the Djiboutian military’s statement, The Addis Standard and human rights groups in Djibouti were emphatic that the strike had actually occurred inside Ethiopia’s Afar region. But Alexis Mohamed, an adviser to Djiboutian President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh, rubbished these reports in now-deleted social media posts. The Continent got to work to figure out what really happened. Over the course of eight months, we collected eyewitness testimonies, interviewed human rights activists in Ethiopia and Djibouti, and examined images and footage from the strike. Our findings align with those of Djiboutian activists, who pinpointed Siyaru in Ethiopia’s Afar region as the site of the strike. The ammunition residue found on the night of the strike confirms the bomb was manufactured by Roketsan, a state run weapons manufacturer in Türkiye. Former US army explosives expert Trevor Ball identified t…
THREAD: this investigation took up over half my year, but it's here in @thecontinent.org:
A Djiboutian drone strike in January was depicted as a army operation targeting rebels. It was actually a massacre of civilians. The bloodshed & coverup implicating Ethiopia, Djibouti, France & Turkiye.
#OSINT
‘Invoking “our girls” is a familiar tactic. Childhood is a canvas onto which fantasies of vulnerability, goodness and citizenship are easily projected; daughterhood allows these fantasies to be gendered, too.’
Helen Charman on asylum hotels, from the blog: www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/se...
"The making of migrants’ wageless life: Exploiting by debasing” is now out in @economyandspace.bsky.social
journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
It investigates value extraction by debasing lives, which encapsulates psycho-physical debilitation and socio-economic devaluation
Some thoughts from me on youth in revolt in Kenya for @hammerandhope.bsky.social. hammerandhope.org/article/keny...
This is the cover of The Continent, dated 9 August 2025, Issue 208. It is illustrated by Wynona Mutisi. The background shows a forest scene at dusk, painted in shades of blue and purple. Among the trees are tents in muted yellows, greens, and oranges, suggesting a mining camp. In the foreground, a man in a hoodie and carrying a pickaxe stands over another man who has fallen backwards, reaching up toward him. To the left, two uniformed soldiers aim rifles at the scene, partly hidden by the trees. The bottom of the image shows dark earth embedded with scattered gold nuggets. The headline reads: “Multinational and deadly: Zambia’s latest gold rush.”
All Protocol Observed
Welcome to Issue 208 of The Continent
A gold discovery near Zambia’s West Lunga Park has triggered a chaotic rush. Thousands have flooded Kikonge, clashes have turned deadly, and illegal buyers are cashing in. A gold rush means risk, riches, and unrest.
bit.ly/TC_208
Map of gold exports from RSF and SAF controlled areas out of the country (primarily to the UAE).
I recommend reading this report by Dr. Suliman Baldo @SulimanBaldo and Ahmed Soliman on gold and the war in Sudan. It demonstrates that most of the gold extracted from Sudan is ending up in the UAE, including gold mined in SAF controlled areas.
www.chathamhouse.org/sites/defaul...
1/7 Edinburgh university has released a report on its institutional complicity in slavery & colonial exploitation. A few observations on why its ‘shocking’ findings shouldn’t surprise us, & how History Reclaimed & their right wing media allies will likely react:
www.theguardian.com/education/20...
Cover of book, with photograph of a group of men with surveying equipment standing in front of a mountain range
Kerry Goettlich, From Frontiers to Borders: How Colonial Technicians Created Modern Territoriality - Cambridge University Press, August 2025
www.cambridge.org/gb/universit...
"People know they will die from either malnutrition or gunfire. I don’t think that should be considered as having options."
Nour ElAssy on the disaster of the new US- and Israeli-backed aid scheme in Gaza: ⬇️
Namibia this week will hold its first national commemoration for victims of mass killings by German occupiers in the first genocide of the 20th century. Between 1904 and 1905. the Germans slaughtered 60,000 Herero and 10,000 Nama people.
Germany did an excellent job at hosting the 2025 Peacekeeping Ministerial earlier this month. But 10 yrs on, has the ministerial process run its course? I argue that it reinforces the primacy of the military in #peacekeeping and an outdated approach to force generation.
cic.nyu.edu/resources/re...
Europe’s flagship development plan promises investment and partnership—but delivers debt, displacement, and old colonial patterns dressed up in green. africasacountry.com/2025/05/the-...
The Ruto administration celebrates World Press Freedom day by arresting four filmmakers who made a film for the BBC about the killings protesters at parliament last year. This is the film they do not want you to see. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
It's not just Trump learning from Bukele. Salvadorans and their history of struggle should reveal to US leftists the outlines of the broad antifascist front that will always be the best antidote to the reactionary right, writes @robvato.bsky.social.
Friends please watch this powerful trailer or a documentary on the brave volunteers of Sudan’s emergency response rooms and donate to
sudansolidarity.com if you feel so moved.
instagram.com/reel/DIbf5lt...
Israel’s revised registration process for international NGOs aiding Palestinians creates a chilling effect against criticism and accountability, writes @eitandi.bsky.social
He has experienced the effect firsthand:
www.justsecurity.org/109772/israe...
The power struggle in #Tigray seems to be over, for now, with the appointment of Lt. Gen. Tadesse Werede as new president of the interim regional administration today. Nonetheless, he will face similar challenges as before, including pressure because of the lack of implementation of Pretoria.
Kenya govt, humanitarian agencies, hatch ambitious plan for Kakuma, one of Africa's largest refugee camps, to evolve into a city and be self reliant as aid dwindles. Can it work?
I get the idea that participation in logistical operations for the benefit of counterterrorism forces is not a great display of impartiality. Still, MINUSMA in Mali was unanimously considered inoffensive. On impartiality, the paper I'd like to read is why the Moura report was blocked for so long
Joint stabilization planning in Somalia has been hampered by unfamiliarity between military and civilian actors. This has constrained operational coordination at several levels.
Learn more in our latest Spotlight:
africacenter.org/spo...
📄𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗣𝗨𝗕𝗟𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 by @judithverweijen.bsky.social, @kvlassen.bsky.social & Godefroid Muzalia
““We Are Caught Between Violence and Famine” – Analysis of the Deepening Crisis Affecting Eastern DR Congo”
#DRC
𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 👉 bit.ly/3FLayRl
