The NSA's Secret Surveillance Mission In Ethiopia

Under the guise of combating terrorists, Ethiopia is likely using intelligence surveillance equipment from its U.S. collaborations to also silence dissent against its authoritarian regime.

“The Ethiopian government uses surveillance not only to fight terrorism and crime, but as a key tactic in its abusive efforts to silence dissenting voices in-country,” says Felix Horne, a senior researcher for Human Rights Watch. “Essentially anyone that opposes or expresses dissent against the government is considered to be an ‘anti-peace element’ or a ‘terrorist.’”

There is a clear need for intelligence surveillance on the horn of Africa given the rise of extremism in the area. Unfortunately, information collected from such activities can easily be used by the government to spy on those who oppose it and its heavy-handed ways. 

It began as a modest counterterrorism effort involving around 12 Ethiopians performing a single mission at 12 workstations. But by 2005, the operation had evolved into eight U.S. military personnel and 103 Ethiopians, working at “46 multifunctional workstations,” eavesdropping on communications in Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.

The history of collaboration on surveillance issues between Ethiopia and the US dates back to Soviet era times when the U.S. enemy was a different one — the communists, not the terrorists. What is more worrying about today's surveillance collaboration is the human rights abuses that are being overlooked in the name of fighting terror. 

“While the exact nature of US support for Ethiopian surveillance efforts in the Ogaden region is not clear, it is very troubling to hear the U.S. is providing surveillance capacities to a government that is committing such egregious human rights abuses in that region,” says Horne, the Human Rights Watch researcher. 

With torture, extrajudicial killings and forced searches, it is unclear how many people manage to be innocent until proven guilty.