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The Guardian - Back to homeThe Guardian

Tom Gardner

Tom Gardner is the Economist’s Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, and the author of The Abiy Project: God, Power and War in the New Ethiopia

June 2024

  • Abiy Ahmed, with close-cropped hair and in a short-sleeved shirt and sunglasses, grinning at Khartoum airport with men around him and a plane labelled "Ethiopia" behind them

    The long read
    From Nobel peace prize to civil war: how Ethiopia’s leader beguiled the world

    The long read: When Abiy Ahmed took power in Ethiopia, he was feted at home and abroad as a great unifier and reformer. Two years later, terrible violence was raging. How did people get him so wrong?

February 2023

  • Hassan Sheikh Mohamud

    Inside Villa Somalia: 72 hours with the president of ‘the most dangerous country in the world’

    Hassan Sheikh Mohamud says the county’s factions can find peace, political Islam need not be violent and democracy can grow. Here’s his exclusive interview with the Observer

January 2023

  • Lemlen Abraha, a Tigrayan refugee, prepares food at her home in a refugee camp in Sudan

    ‘I’m scared to think what Ethiopia will become’: Tigray war refugees fear return

    A fragile peace has been restored but for the tens of thousands of displaced people who fled to Sudan there is no prospect of going home

November 2020

  • Swarms of locusts are seen over agricultural fields in Debrekal, Ethiopia.

    How war threatens Ethiopia's struggle against worst locust swarm in 25 years

    As surveillance and spraying operations cease due to conflict, there are fears the existing food crisis could worsen

August 2020

  • The remains of a car set on fire by a mob in Shashamane

    How a musician's death unleashed violence and death in Ethiopia

    160 people have died following the killing of Haacaaluu Hundeessaa, leaving the ethnically and politically riven country more divided than ever

May 2020

  • A man waves an Oromo flag

    Ethiopia's security forces accused of torture, evictions and killings – report

    Prime minister Abiy Ahmed has been lauded for his democratic reforms. But Amnesty International are now urging him to investigate allegations of serious human rights abuses

April 2020

  • Students at Ambo University

    Suspicion and fear linger as Ethiopia’s campus wars go quiet

    Violent unrest at Ethiopia’s universities has been quelled by police, but the root causes will prove harder to tackle

February 2020

  • A natural gas well at one of the Hilal gas fields in Ethiopia’s Somali region

    The mystery sickness bringing death and dismay to eastern Ethiopia

    As villagers in Somali region fall ill in unexplained circumstances, some locals fear gas exploration has tainted the local water supply

October 2019

  • Foreign investment is beginning to change the city’s skyline, with more projects still to come, according to deputy mayor Takele Uma.

    'This is Dubai now': Nobel-winning PM's plan to transform Addis Ababa

  • Getachew Assefa, wolf monitor and conservationist, scouting for Ethiopian wolves in the Simien Mountains.

    The age of extinction
    Last wolves in Africa: the fragile wildlife of Ethiopia's ravaged parks

August 2019

  • Zeynu Abebe, 19, sits between two sleeping people at Addis Ababa airport after being deported from Saudi Arabia

    Ethiopians face beatings and bullets as Saudi ‘deportation machine’ cranks up

    Saudi Arabia denies claims that staff at detention facilities treat violent abuse of undocumented migrants ‘like a sport’

June 2019

  • Residents of the town of Kangaten collect water from the Omo River

    State projects leave tens of thousands of lives in the balance in Ethiopia – study

    Giant dam and irrigated sugar plantations mean people in lower Omo valley face starvation and conflict, says US thinktank

May 2019

  • A poster celebrating Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in Gedeb town in Ethiopia’s Southern region on May 8th 2019 (2)

    'Go and we die, stay and we starve': the Ethiopians facing a deadly dilemma

    In the rarely visited town of Gedeb, fears are rife over state plans to return 150,000 people to areas they fled because of ethnic violence

April 2019

  • Eritreans demonstrate in front of the African Union headquarters asking for measures to be taken against the country over human rights violations

    Europe accused of financing Eritrean project based on 'forced labour'

    Campaigners say €20m EU scheme uses recruits from Eritrea’s national service, a system likened to mass enslavement

March 2019

  • A group of displaced Gedeo women

    Shadow falls over Ethiopia reforms as warnings of crisis go unheeded

    Having fled violence, a million Ethiopians now face hunger and disease. Yet Abiy Ahmed seems intent only on their return

January 2019

  • Street children in Addis Ababa

    Homeless children struggle to survive on the streets of Ethiopia's capital

    Driven from their rural homes by family problems and lack of opportunity, more and more children are making for Addis Ababa

October 2018

  • People go about their business along the border between Eritrea and Ethiopia

    'I was euphoric': Eritrea's joy becomes Ethiopia's burden amid huge exodus

    As a sevenfold increase in the number of Eritrean refugees arriving in Ethiopia stretches regional resources, fears are growing that the border may close again

September 2018

  • People in Lagos queue at a bus stop

    Now generation
    Ethiopia to Mauritius: how will Africa match jobs to its population boom?

    As Africa seeks new ways to tackle high debt, low pay and inequality, a Nobel laureate believes two countries offer an alternative to the ‘Asian tiger’ model
  • Ginbot 7 Rally -- 09/09/2018 (Charlie Rosser) Abiymania and Ethiopia’s democratic awakening On September 9th, two days before Ethiopian New Year, thousands of Addis Ababa’s residents arrived in the central square and national stadium to welcome exiled opposition leader Berhanu Nega, who was elected mayor of the city in disputed 2005 elections before being jailed and eventually fleeing the country. He leads the opposition movement Ginbot 7 which was labelled a terrorist organisation until Abiy took office in April. Supporters of Ginbot 7 have been enthusiastically waving the old Ethiopian flag, which lacks the star emblem associated with the EPRDF, and calling for unity between Ethiopia’s many ethnic groups. Many attending the rally credited Abiy with allowing their political heroes to return to Ethiopia. “The country is now democratic,” said Stentehu, a Ginbot 7 supporter. “Abiy is amazing -- he is just like my father, my brother. He is family.” G7(20)

    'Abiy Ahmed is our miracle': Ethiopia's democratic awakening

    Under the transformative regime of prime minister Abiy Ahmed, exiled dissidents are being welcomed home. Yet the loosening of state control has also sparked an upsurge in violence
  • Vintage Addis Ababa - Recollections of everyday people Terefe, soaking it all in during a road trip to Langano in the 80s. He graciously gave us some of his photos for the Vintage Addis Ababa archive. Over the next four days we will be showing you some of them.

    The Guardian picture essay
    Everyday memories of Addis Ababa – a photo essay

    Ethiopian website aims to document the lives of communities throughout the 20th century
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