jemal countess

Contract photographer at Getty Images, UPI, Redux Pictures and the Sundance Institute. Any opinions expressed are solely my own.

[jemal countess @JemalCountess]

@SFRCdems I am a Washington DC based photojournalist who has been covering the war in Ethiopia for the past 16 months. When I am in DC I cover The Hill and am at the Capitol often. I am willing to meet to discuss my first hand experiences covering the war if you are open to it.

[Dawit @HOAAffairs]

Ian Campbell’s The Addis Ababa Massacre vividly documents the horrors of February 1937, when Italian forces specifically targeted the Amhara people in a calculated campaign of ethnic cleansing. The massacre was not a random act of violence but a deliberate policy aimed at decimating the Amhara population and undermining their central role in Ethiopia’s cultural and political identity. This atrocity serves as a chilling reminder of how external aggressors once sought to erase a key pillar of Ethiopia’s heritage through bloodshed and terror.

Fast forward to today, and the destruction of Addis Ababa under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s regime echoes that same sinister intent. The systematic displacement of Amharas, the decimation of historic neighborhoods, and the erasure of Addis Ababa’s heritage are not isolated incidents but a continuation of policies aimed at eroding the Amhara identity and legacy. Just as the Italians sought to dismantle the core of Ethiopian resistance by targeting the Amhara people, Abiy’s brutal regime is displacing, silencing, and destroying the very essence of what Addis Ababa represents. History is repeating itself in a tragic and insidious way, and we must call it out for what it is: a relentless campaign of erasure. #AmharaGenocide #AddisAbabaMassacre #JusticeForAmhara

@ShebaPushStart @jeffpropulsion @AmesganawM @NeaminZeleke

[Elyas Yayeh @YayehElyas]

In Wollega, the Oromo Gadaa Army and the Oromo Defense Army are carrying out genocide and ethnic massacres against people of Amhara origin, alongside the destruction of towns, looting, and the burning of villages.

Meanwhile, Jawar’s Qeerroo claims through so-called peaceful demonstrations that Oromos have been massacred.

This is a tactic used by @Jawar_Mohammed to blame the victims—Amharas—in an attempt to divert attention from and cover up the crimes committed by these organized groups.

#AmharaGenocide

@hrw @UNHumanRights
@USEmbassyAddis @ECLJ_Official
@Europarl_EN @EUSR_Weber

@AJEnglish @AP
@BBCWorld @Reuters

[Elyas Yayeh @YayehElyas]

.@Jawar_Mohammed is calling for 𝗳𝘂𝗿𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗱𝗲 against the Amhara people in the Oromia Region under the guise of a “𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗰𝗲𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁.

The Oromo Gadaa Commandos and the Defense Forces massacre the Amhara people and destroy their homes and property.

Jawar, Shimelis Abdisa, and Abiy’s Prosperity Party are allegedly mobilizing Qeerroo in cities across the Oromia Region, armed with machetes and sickles, and inciting what is described as clear ethnic violence against the Amhara people during demonstrations.

#AmharaGenocide

@hrw @UNHumanRights
@EUSR_Weber @USEmbassyAddis

@AJEnglish
@AP

[ነብዩ @neby_G]

🚨 Three Amhara elders between the ages of 70 and 85 who were unable to flee Fendika were hacked to death during the attacks. The death toll in Anger Gutin has now exceeded 118 Amhara civilians, while 14,000 have been displaced. The violence was carried out by Oromia Region Geda Commando forces and local Qerro (Oromo youth).

[Leyou ልዩ @Be_LeYou]

Eight years of Oromuma have changed me in ways I never imagined.

I need to be honest about how deeply the last eight years have changed me.

I used to LOVE ALL ETHIOPIANS equally. I never felt the need to introduce myself as an Amhara Ethiopia either. I simply saw myself as Ethiopian. I didn’t walk through life viewing people through an ethnic lens.

But after eight years of Oromuma horrors, the suffering and killing of Amhara people and everything I’ve witnessed under this Oromuma regime, something inside me has changed. I carry anger, grief, fear and a level of distrust I never had before. Even hearing the Oromo language can trigger fear and uneasiness in me. I used to want to learn the language but I no longer feel safe in the way I once did.

I actually feel for non Oromo people who understand the language and have had to hear the constant propaganda, false narratives and genocidal labeling directed at Amharas. Calling us “Neftegna,” “Sefari,” and other dehumanizing names, along with messages like “start with your neighbors.” Those are just a few examples. I can only imagine how disturbing it must be to repeatedly hear that kind of rhetoric, especially when you know the people being portrayed through those narratives are human beings, families and your fellow Ethiopians.

I know a language does not represent every person who speaks it. I know there are innocent Oromo people who have nothing to do with the crimes, persecution and violence I’m talking about. But trauma doesn’t always respond to logic. This is what eight years of watching people suffer has done to me.

Screenshot this if you want. I’m not saying this because I want to promote hatred. I’m saying it because I want people to understand how profoundly these past eight years have changed ordinary people like me. The person I was eight years ago would barely recognize the person I’ve become.

And if there are Oromo people who reject hatred, persecution and violence against Amharas if you still exist and if you truly believe innocent people should not be targeted because of their ethnicity now is the time to speak up. Silence only deepens the wounds.

Please pray for the #Amhara people in #Ethiopia.

End #AmharaGenocide
End the genocidal #WarOnAmhara

[Typical African @Joe__Bassey]

Speaking fluent English while your grandmother's tongue dies in your mouth is not progress. It is the most successful colonial experiment in human history.

They didn't just take your land. They took the language you used to name it. Every time a child grows up fluent in English but mute in their mother tongue, the colonial project wins—silently, generationally, completely. This is not about rejecting English. It is about understanding what was stolen before you decide what to keep.

There are over 2,000 languages and dialects spoken across Africa. Linguists predict that by 2100 more than half will be extinct—not because Africans forgot them, but because Africans were punished for speaking them.

This was not accidental. Lord Macaulay said it in 1835 in his infamous Minute on Indian Education, but the same blueprint was applied across Africa: create a class of people “Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, opinions, morals and intellect.” Replace the mind. Control the continent forever.

Here is what they never taught you: African languages are not primitive. Yoruba has a tonal complexity that English cannot replicate. Xhosa uses click consonants that modern linguistics still struggles to fully map. These were not simple tongues. They were sophisticated systems of thought.

When you lose a language, you don't just lose words. You lose a way of seeing the world. Concepts, medicines, histories, philosophies—entire civilisations of thought—exist only in those languages. When the language dies, the knowledge dies with it. Permanently.

The most disturbing part: many Africans today voluntarily finish what colonisers started. Parents refuse to teach their children their native tongue. “It limits them,” they say. This is not practicality. It is a trauma response dressed as ambition.

Some will say English opened doors. And they are right. But ask yourself—who built those doors? Who decided which language unlocks opportunity and which one marks you as less than? Accepting that system without questioning it is not intelligence. It is submission.

You were not born ashamed of your language. That shame was installed through beatings, policy and generations of conditioning that told you the coloniser's tongue was civilisation and yours was noise. Thousands of Africans today cannot hold a full conversation in their ancestral language. That is not a coincidence. That is a designed outcome.

Ask yourself: if your language disappeared tomorrow, what exactly would be lost? And who benefits from you never asking that question?

[jemal countess @JemalCountess]

We need to find a way to address this in a way that saves lives and brings peace to people, some of whom have been displaced for over a year….

[Amhara War Updates | የአማራ ጦርነት ወቅታዊ መረጃ @AmharaWarUpdate]

⚡️Over 56,000 IDPs face worsening food and shelter crisis in Sekota City (📍Wag-Hemra Zone, Amhara Region, Ethiopia) as displacement continues to rise.

🔴 As of August 12th, more than 56,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) are currently sheltering in Sekota City, placing severe pressure on housing, food supplies, and other essential services.

🔴 The growing influx has driven a sharp increase in rental costs, with accommodations that previously rented for around 1,000 ETB per month now costing 4,000–5,000 ETB, leaving many displaced families unable to afford housing.

🔴 Many IDPs from Tsegim and Abergele Woredas reported severe hardship due to the lack of humanitarian assistance. One farmer from Tsegim, displaced with his family of seven, said he was forced to sell his only ox for 55,000 ETB to survive and had only about 4,000 ETB remaining after meeting basic household needs.

🔴 Thousands of displaced people from across Wag-Hemra Zone continue to face acute shortages of food, shelter, and other essential supplies as the daily arrival of new IDPs further strains Sekota City's limited resources.

#Amhara_War_Updates

[ነብዩ @neby_G]

“Before Fabrizi arrived,” said a businessman familiar with relations between the Ethiopian government and the Italian Embassy in the African country, “goods were entering with the embassy’s approval that should instead have been inspected: spare parts, food products, furniture, and even weapons. All of it was intended for the circle of relatives and friends of the Prime Minister.”

Our source concluded emphatically: “Fabrizi was exactly the ambassador we needed! He didn’t let anyone walk all over him. He must have seen how things were being run at the embassy and said, ‘No.’ And he made quite a few enemies—but not only here. In Italy as well.”

The administration preceding Ambassador Fabrizi’s is also criticized, among other things, for having been overly generous with visas intended for the Prime Minister’s entourage. As soon as Fabrizi arrived, he ordered that all visa applications be handled through outsourcing—that is, entrusted to a private agency, VFS Global—away from attempted corruption and pressure of every kind.

[ነብዩ @neby_G]

While @ACLEDINFO’s East Africa Senior Analyst, Dr. Jalale Getachew Birru, covers for the @AbiyAhmedAli regime by claiming that the OLA and Oromia Region’s Geda Commando forces are protecting civilians from Fano in Wollega, videos emerging from the ground show Geda Commando forces and Oromo youth going house to house, massacring Amhara civilians and burning their property.

[Global Folder @Global_Folder]

A “Judas goat” refers to a specially trained goat employed to guide sheep or cattle in the direction handlers require. In certain stockyards and slaughter facilities the animal is conditioned to walk quietly among the herd and steer the other livestock toward holding pens, transport vehicles or the slaughter area.

What sets it apart is that the goat itself is not harmed.

Once it has directed the group to the intended location it is returned and can perform the same task again. Historical records note that some Judas goats completed this journey with successive herds on multiple occasions.

The name draws from Judas Iscariot, the biblical figure whose actions became synonymous with betrayal.

[ነብዩ @neby_G]

So Dr. Jalale Getachew Birru, East Africa Senior Analyst at ACLED, is now claiming that OLA is coordinating with Oromia Region Geda Commando forces to “protect civilians” from Fano, all while those same Geda Commando forces have spent the past week massacring over 100 Amhara civilians in Anger Guten Kebele, Oromia Region. Dr. Jalale is clearly showing bias toward @AbiyAhmedAli’s Oromo Prosperity Party regime, using his position at ACLED to amplify what amounts to state propaganda. It is also interesting that he specifically mentions Jaal Mose by name, given that Mose’s OLA faction in Wollega has been described as regime-backed and has been fighting against the OLA faction led by Jaal Maro. This fabricated claim would be laughable if @ACLEDINFO weren’t routinely cited by international media as an authoritative source on Ethiopia’s civil war.

[Leyou ልዩ @Be_LeYou]

Please help amplify this Amhara social media campaign. 💛✨

For years cadres have flooded social media with propaganda, lies and deliberate misinformation. They want to confuse people and control the narrative. Enough!!! It is time for the truth to be heard.

Millions of Amharas have been displaced from their homes. Amharas are being pushed out of places where their families have lived for generations and Amhara people are unable to freely return to Addis Ababa to visit family or access essential services, including hospitals.

And now we are hearing reports that the historic Lion of Judah statue at ለገሀር and The Menelik II Statue at Menelik II Square could be removed. What more are we waiting for?

We can NOT keep carrying the burden of “Ethiopian unity” while our own people are suffering and being displaced. The unity of Ethiopia is not the Amhara people’s responsibility alone.

This is the moment for Amharas to stand together. Not with hatred. With unity, pride, truth and determination.

Protect our people. Preserve our history. Defend our heritage. Stand up for our rights.

Save our people. Protect our heritage. Reclaim our freedom.

💛✨ JOIN THE SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN ✨💛

Change your profile picture to አዲስ አበባ ቤቴ (Addis Abeba Bete) and make your voice visible.

Let the message spread:

ADDIS ABEBA BETE (ADDIS ABABA MY HOME)

#አዲስ_አበባ_ቤቴ
#AddisAbebaBete
#Amhara
#Ethiopia

[The Spearhead @Spearhead_Af]

Content Monetization and The Hijack of Africa's Digital Space

The digital gold rush in Africa is a deliberate structural trap. By incentivizing sensationalism over substance, global platforms have effectively co-opted the creative energy of a generation, steering millions away from the urgent work of reclaiming sovereign narrative and towards a cycle of 'engagement' that hollows out our intellectual discourse.

The Spearhead’s @Big_Mck reports that real digital independence starts with the courage to choose quality over clicks; a challenge that demands a deliberate commitment from every viewer to amplify rather than just consume.

[ነብዩ @neby_G]

The president of Oromia explaining the apartheid system they’re building.

Here is the goal of the mass displacement around A.A
++++++
(From what Mr. Shimeles Abdisa said)
"Why did we build Sheger City, which surrounds Addis Ababa (Finfine) city? We are building it strategically.

- Our enemies know what we are doing. But some of our fools don't understand."

- Trust me! You are young in age. In the next 30 to 40 years, Ethiopia's trade, Ethiopia's GDP will be Sheger, Bishoftu, Geda Special Economic Zone and Adama.

- I have no doubt that Geda Special Economic Zone will be Africa's number one GDP. This will become a reality in the next 30 to 40 years.

Credit: @AdebabayMedia

[Leyou ልዩ @Be_LeYou]

Please help amplify this Amhara social media campaign. 💛✨

For years cadres have flooded social media with propaganda, lies and deliberate misinformation. They want to confuse people and control the narrative. Enough!!! It is time for the truth to be heard.

Millions of Amharas have been displaced from their homes. Amharas are being pushed out of places where their families have lived for generations and Amhara people are unable to freely return to Addis Ababa to visit family or access essential services, including hospitals.

And now we are hearing reports that the historic Lion of Judah statue at ለገሀር and The Menelik II Statue at Menelik II Square could be removed. What more are we waiting for?

We can NOT keep carrying the burden of “Ethiopian unity” while our own people are suffering and being displaced. The unity of Ethiopia is not the Amhara people’s responsibility alone.

This is the moment for Amharas to stand together. Not with hatred. With unity, pride, truth and determination.

Protect our people. Preserve our history. Defend our heritage. Stand up for our rights.

Save our people. Protect our heritage. Reclaim our freedom.

💛✨ JOIN THE SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN ✨💛

Change your profile picture to አዲስ አበባ ቤቴ (Addis Abeba Bete) and make your voice visible.

Let the message spread:

ADDIS ABEBA BETE (ADDIS ABABA MY HOME)

#አዲስ_አበባ_ቤቴ
#AddisAbebaBete
#Amhara
#Ethiopia

[David Hundeyin @DavidHundeyin]

French UN "peacekeepers" in the Central African Republic were making 8 year old girls give them blowjobs in exchange for food.

However much you detest France as an African, I promise you don't hate that country enough.

[jemal countess @JemalCountess]

The reality in Addis Ababa
@Chriseldalewis
@RealCandaceO @dom_lucre
@jimmy_dore
@TheAfricaReport @LemkinInstitute @AfricanHub_ @african_stream
@SFRCdems @SABCNews @SABCNews_Radio @leralambs
@tasetireloaded2 @mainlandafrica @dijoni @IamMzilikazi @ali_naka @cecild84 @DavidHundeyin @Joe_Bassey @OgbeniDemola

[Leyou ልዩ @Be_LeYou]

What is happening in #AddisAbaba #Ethiopia is NOT development. Call it what it is: ethnic gentrification, cultural displacement and a deliberate demographic transformation.

You can NOT bulldoze people out of their homes, erase their neighborhoods, destroy their history and then insult everyone’s intelligence by calling it ‘development’

Development is supposed to improve people’s lives not remove them from the city they built and replace their communities with something else.

This is displacement dressed up as progress and we should not be afraid to call it out.

I can’t imagine what families must be going through because If I were still in Addis Ababa, my family and I would have been displaced too.

The home I was born in is now being turned into a park, and the neighborhood I grew up in is no longer recognizable. Addis Ababa truly used to belong to its residents. Rich or poor, it didn’t matter. Addis was once called “Little Ethiopia” because Ethiopians had access to their own city and a real sense of ownership and belonging.
But as we’ve seen in many colonized countries, major cities often get transformed into “business districts” that become too expensive for locals. In some cases, systems resembling apartheid are created to limit indigenous people’s access to their own land and neighborhoods.

That’s what made Addis different from many other capitals. It was founded by freedom loving people for all Ethiopians and built by their own hands. It used to be our pride.

Sadly, Abiy is now doing what colonizers have done elsewhere. His party is called the “Prosperity Party,” but instead of bringing prosperity to Ethiopians, they are displacing families from their homes and selling property to foreigners. Many of the new buildings are being bought and owned by non Ethiopians mostly Arabs.

Since the majority of Addis Ababa’s residents are Amhara, many historical sites have been destroyed and replaced with new buildings and museums part of a broader effort to erase and “mummify” Amhara identity and Amhara history from Ethiopia, while they quietly prepare for separation.

Addis Ababa used to be a symbol of shared pride. Today, fear is growing where community once existed. Systematically they have turned neighbors into strangers. Without trust, care, or support, many feel completely alone and that loneliness has led to devastating levels of suicide.

Pray for the #Amhara people in #Ethiopia.

End #AmharaGenocide &
The genocidal #WarOnAmhara

[jemal countess @JemalCountess]

The current government in Ethiopia is engaged in an active genocide and ethnic cleansing against the Amhara people. Their ultimate aim is to build a new nation centered around the Oromo ethnic group incorporating lands seized from the Amhara and other ethnic groups to fulfill their objectives. The FANO are fighting the Ethiopian government to protect the Amhara region and all of Ethiopia for that matter from the fascist seeking to destroy the Amhara people, the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the country itself. The Amhara have experienced large scale massacres seemingly every week for the past several years committed by forces aligned with, if not under direct orders of the current, Oromo dominated government.

[kwatts @kwattsgolden]

Hey, any allyship we can get I appreciate! Ms. Rachel!

[Amhara War Updates | የአማራ ጦርነት ወቅታዊ መረጃ @AmharaWarUpdate]

⚡️Over 27 regime forces killed as retreating troops execute Orthodox priest and vandalize church in South Gonder (📍Amhara Region, Ethiopia) on August 10th.

🔵 In Estie Woreda, Fano units under the Guna Division (AFNM-BC) engaged regime forces across Sholekt, Tsion Mountain, Fiyel-Chinqlat, Lebet, Yiba River, Modir, Magot Mountain, and Mama Mountain. Despite the regime's use of ZU-23 anti-aircraft guns, DShK heavy machine guns, and mortars, the fighting left 17 regime personnel killed. Fano forces also captured assorted ammunition and other military supplies.

🔴 Following the engagement, regime forces carried out a reprisal attack by extrajudicially executing Priest Melke Enyew in Sholekt Kebele. Melke was a respected EOTC priest with no involvement in the hostilities.

🔵 In Simada Woreda, the Guna Division (AFNM-BC) fought regime forces across Kosh, Aguat-Wiha, Away, Muge, and Sergawit-Lideta, forcing regime troops to withdraw to Wegeda town. The fighting left 10 regime personnel killed, while wounded troops were evacuated by four ambulances to Wegeda Hospital.

🔴 During their withdrawal, regime forces deliberately vandalized Sergawit-Lideta Church, destroying church property in what local sources described as a punitive act following their battlefield losses.

#Amhara_War_Updates