Ethiopians said Friday they slept in their cars in hours-long queues
for petrol as shortages caused by the Middle East war began to take
their toll.
The effective blockade of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran, through which
a fifth of the world's oil and gas normally passes, has caused
shortages in many countries.
Ethiopia, a nation in the Horn of Africa with around 130 million
people, is particularly vulnerable as it imports all its petrol,
primarily from the Gulf.
Drivers waiting in an enormous queue at a petrol station in the
Summit 72 area of the capital Addis Ababa said the wait was "more
than a day".
"I've been in the queue since last night at around 7:00 pm. I
spent the night in my car without food," said taxi driver Awoke
Derese on Friday morning.
"I have already lost two days of business. I pay 2,000 birr
($13) per day in rental fees for the car. My family is at risk
because I can't support them," he told AFP.
Shortages started to be noticed earlier this week. At another petrol
station in the Summit 72 area, a worker said they had been closed for
four days and did not know when fresh deliveries would arrive.
Bakery worker Natenahel Gedamu said his business needed fuel for
generators and baking machines.
"We ran out yesterday and have not produced anything since,"
he said.
"I'm worried the station may run out of fuel before I reach it.
I've already tried several stations -- this feels like my last
chance," added Natenahel, who had been queueing since 4:00 pm
the previous day.
Land-locked Ethiopia relies on the port of Djibouti for its imports.
It has only 13 strategic reserve depots, according to the state-owned
Ethiopian Petroleum Supply Enterprise, which did not respond to
requests for comment from AFP.
More than 40 percent of Ethiopians live below the poverty line,
according to the World Bank, and fear the inflation -- already
running around 10 percent -- from rising fuel prices.
Addis Ababa has been undergoing a major reconstruction drive in
recent years, but some building projects were on hold this week, AFP
journalists saw.
This included the "corridor" project to widen and renovate
its streets and work in the Bole district near the airport.
😔 The failure to
provide justice and accountability for genocide,
war crimes and mass atrocities is widely recognized as a
direct driver of future conflict, often fueling cycles of violence.
When perpetrators are not
held accountable, it creates a "culture of impunity" that
encourages further violations and undermines the stability of
international law.
In the absence of any meaningful forms of justice and accountability,
impunity for genocide is fueling another genocidal language, vicious
cycle of lawlessness and recurring massacres in Ethiopia. When such
evil perpetrators face no consequences, hatred and violence are
normalised, survivors are silenced, and peace remains fragile.
👉 Courtesy: The
Globe and Mail, by Samuel Getachew and Geoffrey York, Africa
Bureau Chief, March 16, 2026
Five years
after the massacre that killed two members of her family, 71-year-old
Abeba Gebregeziaber is convinced that another horrific war is
looming.
She lives in
the ancient city of Axum, in the highlands of northern Ethiopia,
where Eritrean soldiers killed hundreds of civilians with
machine-guns and house-to-house executions in late 2020. Her son and
son-in-law were among the victims.
“The killing
lasted for days,” she said. “Since then, it’s been a slow death
for me. I have no more tears to cry. And I am certain that more
conflict is coming.”
For weeks, the
fascist Oromo Islamic army of Ethiopia has been mobilizing troops and
equipment in the north, around the Tigray region and the border of
neighboring Eritrea − the same region that suffered a devastating
war from 2020 to 2022, with Axum one of Tigray’s worst-hit cities.
Tensions and
warnings of war have escalated, with clashes briefly erupting in late
January. Eritrean and Tigrayan soldiers – once enemies, now
unofficially allied against the fascist Oromo Islamic regime of
Ethiopia − have been deployed into the border areas.
Fears of war
surge in northern Ethiopia as armies mobilize
The leaders of
landlocked Ethiopia are demanding a port on the Red Sea, a dangerous
ambition that has triggered alarm about a potential military
incursion into Eritrea.
Scholars
estimated that 600,000 people died from violence, famine and disease
in the last Tigray war. Many were killed in atrocities that sparked
accusations of genocide.
Now
the survivors of those earlier massacres are fearful again.
“We are a
wounded people,” said Abeba Desalegn, a 59-year-old woman in Axum
whose brother was killed in the 2020 massacre.
Like many here,
she is contemplating a departure from Tigray to escape war. “Our
wounds have yet to heal,” she told The Globe and Mail. “The
people of Tigray have yet to get any justice from the last war. To
launch another conflict would be the end of us.”
She still
remembers the Eritrean troops arriving in the city in the middle of
the night, just a few weeks after the war erupted. “I heard
screaming, but I was too scared to venture outside,” she said.
“In the
morning, I discovered my street full of dead bodies. Among them was
my own younger brother. He was killed execution-style.”
The bodies
rotted in the streets for days because the Eritreans prevented anyone
from carrying out proper burials, she said. Her 17-year-old son
joined the Tigrayan army to seek revenge. At the end of the war,
officials notified her that he was dead.
Axum, the
2,500-year-old former capital of the Axumite
Empire, has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its
ancient obelisks and palaces. It is famed as a holy city and a site
of religious pilgrimages.
But these days,
with the threat of war rising again, the tourists are gone. Even many
of the locals are fleeing.
Hoarding and
black-market selling are becoming common. Many shop shelves are
empty. Hospitals and clinics are running out of medicine. Banks are
limiting withdrawals because of cash shortages.
Factories and
infrastructure in Axum are still in ruins from the last war. Even
some of the historic obelisks are cracked or have collapsed as a
result of delayed restorations.
Similar
hardships have also led to an exodus from Tigray’s capital,
Mekelle. Flights from the city are full. The buses to Addis Ababa
have become so crowded that scalpers are selling tickets at
exorbitant prices.
At Mekelle’s
bus station, Saba Gebre has been waiting for a bus for days without
any luck. If she cannot get on one, she says, she will hitchhike.
Some residents are leaving on foot, walking to the neighboring Afar
region.
“We do not
want a war,” said Ms. Gebre, who lost many of her relatives in the
earlier conflict.
“We already
paid a heavy price in the last war. To relive that traumatic
experience again would be inhuman.
All sides in
the region are accusing others of preparing for war. Tigrayan
leaders, alleging that the fascist Oromo Islamic army of Ethiopia is
encircling the region, have said that a war is increasingly likely.
Prime Minister of the regime, genocidal Abiy
Ahmed has complained that the Tigrayans are buying weapons and
inciting conflict.
Eritrean and
Ethiopian politicians have been embroiled in a war of words, with
genocidal Abiy Ahmed Ali recently accusing
Eritrea of “evil deeds” in the last war – including the Axum
massacre, which he had previously ignored. Eritrea says the Abiy
government has a “war agenda.”
Analysts are
worried. A U.S.-based research group, the Critical Threats Project,
predicted in late February that the fascist Oromo Islamic army would
attack Tigrayan forces within a month. Another organization, the
International Crisis Group, says the risk of war is palpable, with a
proliferation of potential flashpoints and grievances.
A new conflict
could be much deadlier than the last one, becoming enmeshed with the
devastating war in neighboring Sudan and dragging in other countries
such as Egypt and the Gulf states. Already there are persistent
reports that Ethiopia is providing logistical help to the Rapid
Support Forces, the paramilitary group that has been battling the
Sudanese army since 2023.
A new conflict
could tear Ethiopia apart. Insurgents in the Amhara and Oromia
regions have become a major threat to government forces and have
reportedly won support from Eritrea. War in Tigray could embolden
them further.
Foreign
governments, alarmed by the specter of another destructive war in the
Horn of Africa, are urging all sides to refrain from attacks. Last
week, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke with genocidal
Abiy Ahmed by phone. Few details
were released, but the two men discussed “their shared commitment
to regional stability” and “long-term security in the Horn of
Africa,” according to a State Department readout.
Republican
senator warns of ‘consequences’ if kingdom does not join US
strikes against Iranians.
Senator
Lindsey Graham on Monday questioned whether the United States should
honor a long-sought defense agreement with Saudi Arabia, saying the
kingdom’s refusal to join military operations against Iran made the
partnership difficult to justify given that Americans were dying in a
war Graham himself helped push the Trump administration to start.
In
a post on X, Graham said the American embassy in Riyadh was being
evacuated due to sustained Iranian attacks on Saudi soil, and
expressed frustration that Riyadh had declined to participate
militarily despite what he described as a shared interest in
defeating Iran.
“Americans
are dying and the US is spending billions to dislodge the terrorist
Iranian regime,” he wrote. “Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia seems to be
issuing statements and doing things in the background that are
marginally helpful.”
He
extended the pressure to the broader region: “Hopefully Gulf
Cooperation Council countries will get more involved as this fight is
in their backyard.” The post ended with a veiled threat: “If not,
consequences will follow.”
👹 Pedophile
Jeffrey Epstein secretly funded AI experiments on over 5 million
Ethiopian school children via digital ID.
❖[Mark 9:42]❖
“Whoever
causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be
better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he
were thrown into the sea.”
👉 Selected
comments:
• @lauradoesart
Protect the children but
not the 5 million Ethiopian ones you exploited, and the others we
don't even know about. What will the implications of this be for
Ethiopian society moving forward I wonder...
It's really instructive
the way all of these things dovetail together. Digital ID, AI,
trans-humanism, eugenics, fascism, etc... And all fundamentally in
service to viewing, and using humans as an exploitable resource in
every possible way. We're just taking capitalism to it's final, and
most extreme form.
• As an
African I pray Epstein and his complices
burn in hell,including Bill Gates and Donald stinky Trump 🤮🤮🤮
• Old white
dude thinking out loud, "They trained the AI on 5 million black
children and then being 'supreme' they put a white face on the
android.",
•
@neuroticnice
As an
Ethiopian-American, I was like 12 when Sophia the robot came out, and
it was so cool at that time. now knowing this, it's so sick they prey
on these countries that might not be as technologically advanced!!
•
@caroliinebinns7304
So make this
make sense. These psychopaths are Eugenists who believe black
Africans are inferior, yet they need to harvest the data and minds of
Ethiopians to provide “ intelligence” for their AI?? The
unfortunate thing is is that the African continent is still too
trusting of white people from the West who always need and will
always profit from the human and natural resources of the African
Continent. The other point is that Ethiopia is sacred, they still
refer to the book of Enoch and have preserved their history from
European influence. They could not be invaded by the Italians. Now
the west is going to penetrate in another way. Why don’t these so
called supreme billionaires leave Africans and everyone else alone.
In essence they need everyone to be submissive to fulfil their
nefarious agenda.
•
@halouser248
I'm so angry,
why are we allowing this and doing nothing.
• @ayejay8862
It's not new.
The west, particularly the US, has been using Africa and Africans and
blacks in the Americas for experimentation for centuries. From
militaristic to pharmaceutical, this evil pursuit is a continuation
of a very long tradition. The results of that are being used against
everyone.
This is so
evil! Why does it seem that many experiments was done on African and
African American people? This goes right along with the mantra make
America great again. If you are a believer of Christ this is aligned
with the end times. I hope that with the Epstein files being exposed
that this house if cards will start to fall down. This net is wide
and the powerful need to be held accountable!!!
Africa allows
all these people to over and abuse them, over and over again. You
will think history should have taught them a lot of lessons, but here
we are again. Greed, lack of self wort, low self esteem, lack of
clear vision for the future, and good leadership is seriously lacking
and yet to be found in Africa. It is so sad. Exposing these bad
actors may help to shape the future, who knows.
👹
Epstein Spoke with Renowned Scientist about Benefits of Turning
Children Trans | Ethiopia's AI Institute & Epstein
An investigation into how Jeffrey Epstein’s tentacles reached
Ethiopia, and what it reveals about power, complicity, and the global
reckoning with sexual predation.
In the grand tradition of British scandals involving the powerful and
the predatory, the Jeffrey Epstein affair has proven to be the gift
that keeps on giving—or rather, taking. As the US Department of
Justice released millions of documents related to the convicted sex
trafficker and financier, Britons watched with grim familiarity as
two of their own, Lord Peter Mandelson and Prince Andrew, found
themselves ensnared in the lengthening shadow of Epstein’s crimes.
For Ethiopians and East Africans, however, the revelations have taken
on a peculiar local dimension: their country appears in approximately
334 of the released documents, raising uncomfortable questions about
who knew what, and when.
The British experience offers a cautionary tale. Lord Mandelson, the
Labour grandee and former EU trade commissioner, has faced renewed
scrutiny over his association with Epstein, leading to swift
rejection of his potential appointment as US ambassador and intense
public opprobrium. Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, has become a
pariah within his own family, stripped of royal duties and forced to
settle a civil sexual abuse case brought by Virginia Giuffre for a
reported £12 million. Both men’s falls from grace illustrate a
crucial shift in public tolerance: proximity to a convicted
paedophile is no longer merely unfortunate it is damning.
For Ethiopia, a nation already grappling with internal conflicts,
economic challenges, and questions of governance, the Epstein
connection represents yet another unwelcome international
embarrassment. But it also raises profound questions about how
predators like Epstein exploited developing nations, and whether
enough is being done to investigate his network in Africa.
Britain’s reckoning with the Epstein scandal has been particularly
visceral, perhaps because it touches upon enduring anxieties about
privilege, power, and paedophilia within the establishment. Lord
Mandelson’s association with Epstein reportedly introduced through
mutual connections in elite circles—has proven politically toxic.
Despite his protestations that he had no knowledge of Epstein’s
crimes during their acquaintance, the court of public opinion has
rendered its verdict. His nomination as ambassador to Washington was
effectively dead on arrival, with both Conservative and Labour
figures expressing alarm.
The Mandelson affair echoes the Prince Andrew debacle but with
notable differences. Whilst Andrew’s relationship with Epstein was
documented through photographs, flight logs, and eventually legal
testimony, Mandelson’s connection appears more tangential, dinners,
social gatherings, the sort of networking that defines elite circles.
Yet in the post-Epstein era, such distinctions matter less than they
once might have. The question is no longer “Did you know?” but
“Should you have known?” and increasingly, “Why didn’t you
ask?”
Prince Andrew’s trajectory from the Queen’s favourite son to
virtual exile illustrates the mechanism of social rejection in real
time. The now-infamous BBC Newsnight interview in November 2019, in
which he claimed he couldn’t have been at a nightclub with Virginia
Giuffre because he was at Pizza Express in Woking and suffered from a
medical condition preventing him from sweating, became a masterclass
in self-immolation. Public revulsion was swift and comprehensive.
Corporate sponsors fled. Charities distanced themselves. The military
stripped him of honorary titles.
What united both men’s downfalls was their association with a man
whose crimes were, by 2008, a matter of public record. Epstein’s
initial conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor, a
sweetheart plea deal that saw him serve just 13 months, should have
ended his social acceptability. That it didn’t speaks to the power
of wealth, influence, and the willingness of elites to overlook
uncomfortable truths.
Epstein’s 2019 arrest on federal charges of sex trafficking minors
and his subsequent death by apparent suicide in a Manhattan jail cell
merely confirmed what investigators had long suspected: his earlier
conviction represented only a fraction of his crimes. The subsequent
releases of court documents, flight logs from his private jet (dubbed
the “Lolita Express”), and now the DOJ files have painted a
portrait of industrial-scale sexual exploitation involving girls as
young as 14.
Yet the released documents reveal something far more disturbing than
the already horrific sex trafficking operation. Buried within
thousands of pages are references to Epstein’s fascination with
eugenics, transhumanism, and what can only be described as a God
complex that would make Lucifer himself envious. Witnesses and
associates described Epstein’s interest in using his New Mexico
ranch to seed the human race with his DNA, impregnating multiple
women to create a “superior” bloodline a scheme that echoes the
darkest chapters of 20th-century pseudoscience.
The files contain disturbing allegations that extend beyond sexual
abuse into territory that seems almost mediaeval in its barbarity.
Court testimonies reference Epstein’s circle discussing practices
that blur the line between scientific experimentation and occult
ritual. One particularly harrowing account describes conversations
about cellular regeneration theories and the procurement of
biological materials from young victims allegations that, whilst
unproven in court, paint a portrait of a man whose depravity knew no
bounds.
Whether these represent literal truths or the exaggerations of
traumatised witnesses struggling to articulate unspeakable
experiences, they underscore a crucial point: Jeffrey Epstein was not
merely a sex offender but a man who believed himself above natural
and moral law. His interest in cutting-edge science, from artificial
intelligence to genetics, was inseparable from his conviction that
wealth and intellect entitled him to treat human beings, particularly
young girls, as experimental subjects. This, then, was the “Lucifer”
that Professor Berhanu Nega might have unwittingly invoked.
The revelation that Berhanu Nega, now Ethiopia’s Minister of
Education, received scholarship funding from Jeffrey Epstein takes on
an almost prophetic irony given the professor’s own public
statements. During his years in opposition to the Ethiopian People’s
Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) government, Nega famously
declared that he would “work with Lucifer himself” if it meant
overthrowing the regime he despised.
It was not mere rhetoric. Nega’s political journey has been one of
scorched-earth pragmatism. Having left the United States, where he
held academic positions, he took the extraordinary step of accepting
Eritrean citizenship to wage an armed insurgency against the
Ethiopian government. His organisation, Ginbot 7, launched attacks
from Eritrean territory, making common cause with one of Africa’s
most repressive regimes a government that has held no elections since
independence in 1993 and operates what human rights organisations
have described as an open-air prison.
The insurgency failed militarily but succeeded in keeping Nega
relevant. When Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018, Nega
was among the formerly exiled opposition figures welcomed back to
Addis Ababa. His transformation from armed rebel to Minister of
Education was swift and, to many observers, bewildering. That he now
oversees the education of Ethiopia’s children whilst having
received funding from a convicted paedophile strikes many Ethiopians
as a cosmic joke in exceptionally poor taste.
Nega has maintained that he had no knowledge of Epstein’s crimes
when he received the scholarship funding in the early 2000s. This is
plausible, Epstein’s 2008 conviction came later, and his ability to
maintain a veneer of respectability amongst academics was
well-documented. Yet the symbolic resonance remains inescapable: a
man who vowed to work with Lucifer did, in fact, accept money from
perhaps the closest thing to a living embodiment of evil that modern
America has produced.
The question now confronting Nega and the Ethiopian government is
whether historical ignorance absolves present responsibility. Should
a Minister of Education, responsible for safeguarding children,
remain in post whilst associated, however tangentially, with the
world’s most notorious child sex trafficker?
The Epstein connection to Ethiopia becomes more disturbing when
examined alongside recent developments in the country’s digital
infrastructure. According to documents circulating amongst civil
liberties advocates and technology researchers, the Ethiopian
government has harvested DNA and biometric data from approximately
five million children as part of a digital identity programme. The
initiative, ostensibly designed to improve access to education and
health services, has raised alarm bells amongst data protection
experts.
What transforms this from a concerning privacy issue into a potential
Epstein connection is the funding architecture. Investigative
journalists have identified links between the biometric programme and
funding arrangements involving entities connected to Epstein’s
network of technology investments. Moreover, contracts with United
Arab Emirates-based businesses, some of which appear in the periphery
of the Epstein files, suggest a complex web of financial
relationships that demand scrutiny.
The UAE connection is particularly troubling. Epstein maintained
extensive business relationships in the Gulf states, where privacy
laws and less stringent regulatory oversight provided convenient
cover for questionable transactions. That Ethiopian government
contracts for biometric data collection involving children might flow
through similar channels raises urgent questions.
To be clear: there is no evidence of direct Epstein involvement in
Ethiopia’s digital ID programme, which postdates his death. But the
pattern is familiar developing nations desperate for technological
advancement and foreign investment, complex funding arrangements
involving offshore entities, and programmes that collect sensitive
biological data from vulnerable populations. These are precisely the
conditions that predators like Epstein exploited.
The collection of children’s DNA in particular evokes Epstein’s
documented fascination with genetics and eugenics. His stated desire
to “seed the human race” with his genetic material, his funding
of research into human longevity and enhancement, and his connections
to the transhumanist movement all suggest a man obsessed with
biological manipulation on a grand scale.
For five million Ethiopian children to have their genetic information
collected and stored in databases accessible to foreign contractors
recalls the darkest elements of the Epstein files. What safeguards
exist to prevent this data being sold, shared, or exploited? Who has
access? What purposes, beyond the stated administrative ones, might
it serve?
These questions acquire particular urgency given Ethiopia’s
political instability and history of surveillance. The EPRDF
government, which Nega spent years fighting, was notorious for its
extensive security apparatus. The current government under Abiy Ahmed
has shown little inclination toward greater transparency or respect
for privacy rights. The Tigray conflict demonstrated the willingness
to use technology, including telecommunications shutdowns, as weapons
of war.
The majority of Ethiopian references in the released documents relate
to market intelligence reports that Epstein commissioned from
consultants, suggesting he had, or was considering, investments in
the country. One confirmed investment was iCog Labs, an artificial
intelligence research laboratory co-founded by Ben Goertzel, a
prominent AI researcher, and Getnet Aseffa. The emails reveal
Goertzel’s energetic cultivation of Epstein as a funder, with
repeated assurances that “the guys” in Ethiopia were doing
“amazing things”, the sort of vague enthusiasm that signals
either genuine excitement or, more cynically, the massaging of a
wealthy patron’s ego.
The iCog Labs connection is particularly relevant because it
illustrates Epstein’s modus operandi in respectable society. By
positioning himself as a patron of cutting-edge scientific research,
he also funded Harvard University’s Programme for Evolutionary
Dynamics and MIT’s Media Lab, Epstein purchased legitimacy.
Scientists and academics who accepted his funding found themselves in
an impossible position after his crimes became undeniable: return the
money and acknowledge poor judgment, or keep it and face accusations
of complicity.
Given Epstein’s documented interest in artificial intelligence,
genetics, and human enhancement, his funding of an AI laboratory in
Ethiopia takes on sinister overtones. Was this genuine philanthropic
interest in African technological development, or was Ethiopia, with
its limited regulatory oversight and desperate need for investment,
an attractive location for research that might face ethical
objections elsewhere?
More colourful, if less consequential, are the emails from Shaher
Abdulhak, a Yemeni billionaire who died in 2020 and who addressed
Epstein as “cousin brother” a term of endearment that sounds
rather less charming in English than presumably intended. Abdulhak’s
pitches to Epstein included the gloriously ill-conceived idea of
creating an energy drink from khat (a stimulant plant chewed across
the Horn of Africa and Yemen) mixed with lemon juice to compete with
Red Bull.
More seriously, Abdulhak sought a $20 million loan for National
Tobacco Enterprise Ethiopia, claiming his Sheba Investment Company
owned 60% of it. Whether Epstein provided the funds remains unclear,
though the brazen nature of the request speaks to the casual
corruption that characterised elite interactions with the financier.
Buried in the correspondence is one email that transforms the
Ethiopian connection from merely embarrassing to potentially
sinister. In a message apparently sent to Abdulhak, Epstein mentioned
that a “good friend who runs a modelling agency” believed there
were “interesting girls” in Ethiopia.
In isolation, this phrase might be innocuous. In context, an email
from a convicted sex offender who trafficked underage girls
internationally, it becomes chilling. The term “interesting girls”
echoes the euphemistic language Epstein and his associates used to
discuss recruitment of victims. Modelling agencies, legitimate and
otherwise, have long been identified as potential vectors for
exploitation, offering young women from impoverished backgrounds
promises of international careers whilst potentially exposing them to
abuse.
Court documents from Epstein’s trials reveal a recruitment pattern
that was both systematic and global. Victims were often approached
through seemingly legitimate channels, modelling scouts, educational
programmes, employment opportunities, before being groomed and
trafficked. The operation relied on local recruiters who understood
cultural contexts and could identify vulnerable targets.
Ethiopia, with its poverty, limited opportunities for young women,
and a culture where deference to wealthy foreigners remains common,
would have been an ideal hunting ground. That Epstein’s private jet
received permission to land in Ethiopia, and that he mentioned
visiting the country in correspondence with Steve Bannon, confirms he
had physical presence there.
There is no direct evidence in the released documents that Epstein
trafficked Ethiopian girls or engaged in criminal conduct within
Ethiopia. But the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence,
particularly when so much of Epstein’s operation was deliberately
hidden. Victims have described being trafficked to numerous
countries, being flown on his private jets to locations where their
passports were confiscated and they were kept in conditions
resembling sexual slavery.
For Ethiopian law enforcement and civil society, these revelations
demand investigation. If Epstein visited Ethiopia, whom did he meet?
Were any young Ethiopian women recruited through his network? Did any
of his associates, the modelling agency friend, for instance, operate
in the country?
The reaction amongst Ethiopians and East Africans to the Epstein
revelations has been complex, reflecting broader ambivalences about
corruption, foreign influence, and accountability. On social media
and in diaspora communities, there is genuine anger, not merely at
Epstein, but at the Ethiopian individuals and institutions that
enabled his presence.
The revelation about Berhanu Nega has proven particularly divisive.
His supporters argue that accepting scholarship funding from Epstein
over two decades ago, before the full extent of his crimes was
publicly known, represents an unfortunate association rather than
complicity. His critics counter that a man who vowed to work with
Lucifer cannot now claim shock at having done precisely that.
The controversy has reignited broader questions about Nega’s
judgment and principles. His acceptance of Eritrean citizenship to
fight Ethiopia, making common cause with a regime at least as
repressive as the EPRDF he opposed, already raised eyebrows. His
seamless transition from armed insurgent to government minister
suggested a pragmatism that borders on opportunism. The Epstein
connection adds another troubling layer.
Yet there is also a strain of fatalism in East African responses, a
sense that corruption and exploitation by wealthy foreigners is
simply business as usual. Ethiopia has long experience with foreign
actors from colonial powers to modern corporations and NGOs
extracting value whilst leaving minimal benefit. In this reading,
Epstein is merely the latest in a long line of predators, and
focusing on him distracts from structural problems.
This cynicism, whilst understandable, is dangerous. It normalises
exploitation and discourages the accountability mechanisms necessary
to prevent future abuses. The global reckoning with Epstein’s
crimes has demonstrated that exposure and prosecution are possible,
albeit belatedly.
The convergence of Epstein’s eugenic obsessions with Ethiopia’s
biometric data collection programme represents a thoroughly modern
nightmare. Epstein’s interest in “improving” the human race
through selective breeding was, at least in his expressed ambitions,
constrained by biology how many women could he impregnate? But
contemporary genetic databases and artificial intelligence offer
possibilities that would have seemed like science fiction even a
decade ago.
The five million Ethiopian children whose DNA has been harvested now
exist as data points in systems whose full capabilities and access
protocols remain opaque. In the wrong hands, such databases could
enable precisely the sort of genetic manipulation and selection that
Epstein fantasised about. Even in benign hands, the data represents
extraordinary value pharmaceutical companies pay enormous sums for
genetic information from diverse populations.
That contracts related to this programme involve UAE-based entities
with peripheral connections to Epstein’s network may be
coincidental. But given the pattern of Epstein’s investments,
artificial intelligence in Ethiopia, genetic research globally,
transhumanist projects, the possibility of intentional targeting
cannot be dismissed.
The Ethiopian government’s response to questions about data
security has been, at best, inadequate. Officials tout the benefits
of digital identity whilst providing few details about encryption,
access controls, or international data-sharing agreements. For a
government that has demonstrated willingness to use technology
repressively, and which employs a Minister of Education who received
funding from a paedophile eugenicist, assurances ring hollow.
What the Epstein files ultimately reveal, whether the references are
to Britain, Ethiopia, or the dozens of other jurisdictions touched by
his crimes, is the banality of elite evil. Epstein was not a Bond
villain operating from a secret lair. He was a fixture of respectable
society, funding university departments, advising the wealthy,
socialising with princes and presidents.
His crimes were enabled not by exotic conspiracy but by the mundane
mechanisms of wealth and power: the assumption that rich men deserve
privacy, the reluctance to ask awkward questions of generous donors,
the willingness to overlook earlier convictions in exchange for
access and funding.
For Ethiopia, the lessons are particularly stark. When Professor
Berhanu Nega vowed to work with Lucifer himself to achieve his
political aims, he articulated a principle, that ends justify means,
which is fundamentally corrupting. Whether he knowingly accepted
money from a monster is less important than his demonstrated
willingness to do so. That such a man now oversees the education of
Ethiopia’s children, whilst his government harvests their genetic
data through murky international contracts, should alarm anyone
concerned with child welfare.
The parallels with Britain’s experience are instructive. Lord
Mandelson and Prince Andrew discovered that wealth, title, and power
provide no immunity from public judgment when the crimes are
sufficiently heinous and the association sufficiently close. Both
have been effectively exiled from polite society, their legacies
permanently tarnished.
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EPSTEIN PROVES EYES WIDE SHUT WAS REAL!
Ethiopian figures connected to Epstein deserve similar scrutiny. The
fact that Ethiopia is poorer than Britain, that its media
infrastructure is weaker, that competing crises demand attention none
of these absolve the moral responsibility to investigate and, where
appropriate, demand accountability.
As more files are released and investigations continue, the full
extent of Epstein’s Ethiopian connections may become clearer. For
now, Ethiopians are left with uncomfortable questions, partial
answers, and the knowledge that their country appeared on the radar
of one of history’s most prolific sexual predators a man whose
interests in genetics, artificial intelligence, and young girls may
have found fertile ground in a nation desperate for investment and
incapable of effective oversight.
If Berhanu Nega truly made a Faustian bargain, working with his
Lucifer to achieve power, the devil has certainly had his due. The
question now is whether Ethiopia’s children will pay the price for
their elders’ moral compromises. With five million of them reduced
to data points in databases connected, however tenuously, to a dead
paedophile’s trans humanist fantasies, the answer may already be
written in code we’ve yet to fully decrypt.