ABOUT
I am an Africa correspondent for The Economist.
For more than 5 years I was based in Addis Ababa, where I reported on everything from indigenous Ethiopian finance to the politics of religion, from digital piracy to political satire, and from the politics of cultural preservation to the messy collision of camels and trains. I covered Sudan’s uprising and its stalled democratic transition, as well as the early promise of “Abiymania”and Ethiopia’s brief democratic opening. In 2018 I made it onto the first flight between Ethiopia and Eritrea in two decades to report on that historic diplomatic thaw, as well as Eritrea’s aborted perestroika.
From 2020, I reported extensively on Ethiopia’s civil war, one of the deadliest conflicts of the 21st century, until I was expelled from the country in May 2022. Since then I’ve written my first book. "The Abiy Project: God, Power and War in the New Ethiopia" is the story of Africa's most controversial living leader, and a chronicle of the most tumultuous years in recent Ethiopian history. It is now available to pre-order on Amazon.
I also do blogs and book reviews, contribute to the 'Economist Espresso' daily news briefing, and over the years have written on an occasional freelance basis for outlets including The Guardian, Thomson Reuters Foundation, 1843 Magazine, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, The Atlantic, Quartz, Prospect, Monocle, Huffington Post, The New Humanitarian, New Statesman and The Africa Report.
I have appeared on television and radio.
I have a BA and MSc from Oxford University.
CONTACT
Twitter: @TomGardner18
Email: tomgardner[at]economist[dot]com
LinkedIn: here