ELLA PROBERTS
Mengistu Hailu sits between other prominent figures within the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church (Image: Ella Proberts)
Every morning, Mengistu Hailu wakes up and checks WhatsApp.
He’s hoping for a message about the whereabouts of his mother, brother and sister, from an Ethiopian-based journalist.
Last week, he says he learned his mother’s village in Ethiopia had been burned down by Abiy Ahmed’s Army - the current Ethiopian prime minister.
This is just one example of the extreme violence taking place in Amhara, Ethiopia - a conflict that has been silently escalating since the ceasefire of the Ethiopian war in 2022.
Mr Hailu is a prominent member of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church in Brisbane and says the conflict – and the lack of news surrounding it – is taking a toll.
“It's unbelievable, everyday people are dying from hunger, because they cannot move because of the war and many women and children are raped… by the armies,” he said.
“It has created quite a massive stress to the community here and I always receive from two, three, to five phone calls every day."
“[Members of the community say] ‘I don't know how I how I'm going to continue my life’, ‘I don't know what happened to my parents’, ‘I don't know what happened to my siblings’, ‘I don't know what happened - because no news, I can't hear from them’.”
In the hours that Mr Hailu is not working as the director of the Romero Centre charity, he travels to these community members' homes to mediate arguments he says are caused by the stress of the situation.
“What I see from here is lots of frustration, anger, and hurt because no one is valuing what is happening,” Mr Hailu said.
“Unless it’s reported by a prominent Western journalist or human rights activist then people don’t think it’s important.
“People are hearing news all over the place, especially in the Middle East, and Ukraine or Russia… even our neighbour Sudan’s news is sometimes reported, but no one cares for the Ethiopian.
“So that kind of thing triggers the community and makes things a bit worse,” he said.
Lack of reporting: quantified
Over the last six months, the conflict in Ethiopia was mentioned in 4389 news reports.
It’s currently ranked by the ACLED index as the 22nd most violent country in the world.
Following Ethiopia is Israel, the 23rd most violent country.
150,914 reports were published about its conflict during the same time period.
ACLED violence ranking vs the number of news articles published in English in the last six months
When comparing a country’s violence ranking to the number of news articles it’s mentioned in, the data shows that media attention is not proportionate to a conflict's severity.
This means Ethiopia is not the only country whose conflict is met with silence.
The most volatile country is Myanmar, according to the ACLED index.
The ACLED found that Myanmar had the highest average ranking across four violence indicators: death toll, number of political events targeted towards civilians, proportion of the country experiencing violence, and number of non-state armed groups fighting in the country.
Myanmar's conflict was mentioned in 6984 articles in the past six months.
Syria, the second most volatile country, was the topic of 28,923 reports in this time frame and Palestine, the third most volatile nation, received 33,002 reports.
Ukraine was ranked as the 14th most volatile nation, and received more attention than Syria and Palestine combined, with 104,193 reports mentioning it’s conflict.
The most reported countries in order are Israel, Ukraine, Russia, Iran, then India.
James Arthur, a former researcher for the Responsibility to Protect Centre, says it is no coincidence that there is so much attention on these countries, compared to countries in Africa.
“Interestingly, the countries with the most media attention appear to be home to people who are white, or who appear more Western,” he said.
Interactive Map comparing a country's ACLED violence ranking, to the number of news articles published in English of the past six months.
Comparing the number of English reports published in the last six months between African countries and the 5 most reported countries
“Compared to Africa, India does have quite a high number of reports… I would say that comes down to the fact that they have a rising economy, and their industries are becoming more material to the US… you also do have to account for reports coming from India itself, which is a very densely populated area.”
India is ranked as the 16th most violent country, and over half of the 45,000 news reports were published within India.
This was followed by the United States, which produced 8290 reports.
The US government released a statement outlining the importance of their strategic relations with India.
“The relationship between the United States and India is one of the most strategic and consequential of the 21st century,” the report read.
"It feels almost inhumane"
Mr Arthur said this illustrates how our interest in news often surrounds “how relevant” we deem the subjects of the story to be.
He also said “novelty” attracts readership in war reporting.
“We unfortunately accept violence as a norm in under-developed countries, meaning to report on it would make it less ‘newsworthy’ than a war in a country where it would seem unusual," Mr Arthur said.
“I also fear that people aren’t interested in news about these countries because it feels like there is nothing we can do and that it’s inherent.
“It’s certainly the case in Africa… we can see there is very little sustained global attention on that continent.
“When I say it out loud and when I see the data, it feels almost inhumane,” he concluded.
Difficult to report on
Another reason for a lack of reporting, specifically in Africa, is that it is difficult to produce accurate news safely, according to Mr Hailu.
He said internet restriction contributes to this.
“There is no internet access at all. [The government] broke it. They broke because if there's the internet, all the killings and everything will be reported globally and nationally,” he said.
He added that the internet can only be accessed through wireless connection offered at big hotels or near government offices.
Belete Kassa fled Ethiopia because he felt unsafe as a journalist. (Image supplied: Belete Kassa)
The journalist Mr Hailu is in contact with, Belete Kassa, fled from Ethiopia to Uganda due to the danger of reporting in Ethiopia.
Mr Kassa’s friend has been imprisoned for reporting on the conflict and remains in Ethiopia.
He has not heard from him, but continues to publish news on YouTube about Ethiopia from his new location.
His previous channel had 190,000 active subscribers.
“It got taken down because we were talking about the government,” Mr Kassa said.
He posts twice per day to his 42,000 subscribers on his new account, with the help of four journalists who work for him in Ethiopia.
“It is very dangerous for them… they are in hiding,” he said.
“15 journalists a day are arrested and their relatives… it is very hard to be a journalist unless you are reporting about the positive application of the government."
Mr Kassa said receiving information from the government is sometimes difficult, and he always has to fact check it through his journalists and contacts on the ground.
“I contact the local government for information and sometimes they give me information, sometimes it is correct.”
“Sometimes they try to mislead us and give us false information."
Voice for the voiceless
Mr Kassa and Mr Hailu resolve to raise awareness of the violence in Ethiopia, and to support their communities.
“I can’t do anything for my own people. It’s good that I do help people here, but I can’t be a voice,” Mr Hailu said.
“That’s Romero’s motto, ‘voice for the voiceless’ and to share the information to the world… but here, there’s no way I can do it in that way.
“We don't have any power, you know, to influence the government. But Western countries, those who have money, they can influence… If we start this kind of work from the ground and give some information, it might go slowly, slowly, up to the mainstream.
“It is concerning me a lot, every day when I wake up from my bed, that's a big concern... But I cannot give up.”