Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

Dan Connell

Dan Connell, the author of numerous books and articles on Eritrea, is a contributing editor of Middle East Report and a visiting researcher at Boston University’s African Studies Center. He is currently working on a book on the Eritrean refugee

MER Article

From Alliance to the Brink of All-Out War

In the arid, mountainous, north-eastern corner of Africa, two of the world&’s poorest but best armed states -- Eritrea and Ethiopia, allies until a short while ago -- are on the brink of all-out war. Shuttle diplomacy by a succession of would-be mediators has failed to provide an exit from potential

Dan Connell • 9 min read

MER Article

Political Islam Under Attack in Sudan

Through binoculars I can see clouds of reddish-brown dust billowing behind a Toyota pickup racing across the burnt savannah. A Dashka .50-caliber machine gun is mounted on its back. Crouched around me are a dozen guerrillas armed with AK-47s, hand grenades and light machine guns. The mood is casual, but

Dan Connell • 9 min read

MER Article

Alignments in the Horn

A decade ago, the Horn of Africa was the scene of one of the most spectacular geopolitical realignments in Cold War history. A devastating famine helped trigger the ouster of Ethiopia’s strongly pro-US emperor Haile Selassie in 1974. A military junta seized power in Addis Ababa and pledged to place

Dan Connell • 6 min read

MER Article

"A Strategy Much Like Vietnam"

Dan Connell has covered the Horn of Africa for newspapers and broadcast media in North America and Europe since 1976. He spoke with the MERIP editors immediately after returning from Lebanon in early August. Can you describe the situation in Beirut?

Dan Connell • 9 min read

MER Article

War Crisis Escalates

Political developments in Africa have lately slipped out of the headlines, but the confrontations brewing there could dwarf earlier conflicts in both military fury and political complexity. The US-backed regimes in Somalia and Sudan each face the possibility of sudden coups d’etat or civil wars. The

Dan Connell • 6 min read