Thread by @althecat

@CrisisGroup needs to get rid of @wdavison10. New podcast just dropped full of TPLF propaganda.

I can’t even. #AfarAttackDefensive #ShireArmsFlights #TigrayBlockade all the talking points.

podcasts.apple.com/fr/podcast/hol…

It even begins with an intro which misses out the TPLF attack on the #NorthernCommand which started the war calls from Davison for #WesternTigray to be returned.

If @EroComfort wants to be taken seriously @WillDavison10 and his baggage needs to removed from the theatre.

What @CrisisGroup needs to understand is that Will’s reckons are not even close to fair and balanced. Haven’t been for months, and perhaps that’s the reason they haven’t published anything for months.

Davison’s claims that TPLF has rearmed (by who?) and claims that TPLF’s forces withdrew largely intact are particularly incendiary in the current context. I had dismissed the reports of Sudan Shire flights as disinformation but I could be wrong. But if true this is very bad news.

Another significant omission in Will’s reckons is the failure to mention of the 2nd of the three ceasefires by the GoE in this conflict, namely the FDRE announced ceasefire in December. Which was flouted immediately in Afar.

The authority with which Davison asserts that (at least 2) arms supply flights from unidentified “Antonovs” were made into Tigray, and subsequent remarks that these were of drone blocking technology, and remarks about Western Tigray being suitable for ENDF/Eritrean tank defence…

… begs questions about whether the arms brought in by the Antonovs were actually manpads and javelins. I.E. the arms being used in Ukraine. Raising additional questions about their origin.

In the final segment Davison’s stream of consciousness returns to Tigray. He talks about “cautious optimism” on the humanitarian front requiring TPLF to withdraw from “pockets” of Amhara and Afar that they are occupying. “Pockets” is a weird word for the massive afar occupation.

And as we get to the end we discover that there is also no mention of the #s3199 #hr6600 activity in the US congress. The absence of which is inexplicable.

At the close @atwoodr goes into a discursive comparison between Ukraine and Ethiopia.

In this final segment Russia’s offensive in Ukraine is even compared to the “defacto blockade” of Tigray.

@CrisisGroup appears to be all in with the TPLF. I can’t see much credibility in the HoA remaining after this.

The issues in Ethiopia are complex. But this is not an acceptable way to cover what was even acknowledged by @willdavison10 as probably the most lethal war in the world in 2021. Which it was.

If Davison is right about arms shipments to Tigray of sophisticated new weapons tech - and he’s certainly confirmed this as far as Western policy makers in the @crisisgroup client list are concerned - the implications are nothing short of horrific.

Final comment: Here is why @WillDavison10’s analysis is so terrible.

Like his @CrisisGroup HoA alumni @dibjir and @rabdianalyst their fellow travelers incl. the @bbc’s Martin Plaut and @TuftsUniversity’s Alex de Waal - Will’s focus is on military maneuvers rather than context.

Much of the coverage of Ukraine - especially that in US cable TV media - has the same flaw. Earlier in the War Davison’s constant refrain in @CrisisGroup podcasts was to call for a national dialogue.

But when it actually happened the National Dialogue received no real coverage, from @CrisisGroup @Willdavison10 or anyone else.

Peace building is called “building” because it requires careful quality construction. But maybe this isn’t what the audience of @CrisisGroup wants.

/ends

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