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sarcasm
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IGF Internet Governance Forum is rewarding Ethiopia with hosting IGF2022 for blocking 6m people from internet & banking

Post by sarcasm » 01 Oct 2022, 08:51

IGF - Internet Governance Forum is rewarding Ethiopia with hosting IGF2022 for blocking 6m people from internet & banking

Six million silenced: A two-year internet and phone outage in Ethiopia
29 September 2022 - 07:29
BY REUTERS



"Access to communications and other basic services, and most importantly humanitarian assistance, is explicitly used as a bargaining chip by the Ethiopian government," said Goitom Gebreluel, a political analyst specialising in Horn of Africa affairs.

"It is used as leverage against both Tigray and the international community."

In Ethiopia, sporadic internet and phone blackouts have been used as "a weapon to control and censor information", the group said, making it difficult for journalists and activists to document alleged rights crimes, and for aid to be delivered.


She had just been crowned world champion, but Ethiopian marathon runner Gotytom Gebreslase broke down in tears when asked if her family was celebrating her win back home in war-torn Tigray.

"I haven't spoken to my parents in months," she said, wiping her eyes as she spoke at a news conference during the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, in the northwestern U.S. state of Oregon, in July.

"I wish my own father and mother could celebrate my achievement the way other Ethiopians are."

Few have been spared the effects of a nearly two-year internet and phone shutdown in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region, which has been cut off since fighting erupted between Tigrayan rebels and government forces in November 2020.

The conflict resumed last month after a months-long humanitarian truce, dashing hopes for communications to be restored.

Even the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who hails from Tigray, said he had been unable to reach his relatives back home, or send them money.

"I don't know even who is dead or who is alive," Tedros told a recent news conference in London.

As fighting continues in Tigray and elsewhere in Ethiopia, the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed says shutdowns are needed to curb violence, but critics accuse authorities of using the internet as a weapon of war.

"Access to communications and other basic services, and most importantly humanitarian assistance, is explicitly used as a bargaining chip by the Ethiopian government," said Goitom Gebreluel, a political analyst specialising in Horn of Africa affairs.

"It is used as leverage against both Tigray and the international community."

SATPHONES AND PRINTOUTS

Continue reading https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/africa ... -ethiopia/

The UN Internet Governance Forum will be in Ethiopia, where a politically driven internet shutdown has been hurting people for almost 2 years now.
@IntGovForum
& #IGF2022 attendees, what will you do to help?