the times | Saturday January 1 2022 2GM 39family lost “every material possession”
they owned in the fires. He said: “Our
home, cars and everything we had in
our home lost to the fires that ripped
through our community. Thank you to
those who reached out. Processing how
to completely start over and grateful for
our health.”
Officials have pleaded with residents
not to return to their homes whileModel spills the big fat
secret behind the
plus-size business
Page 43My yacht’s bigger than
yours! Billionaires
flock to St Barts
Page 41as freak fires rage across the Rockies
to you from your grandmother, of
losing your childhood yearbooks, of
losing your photos, of losing your
computer files — which hundreds of
Colorado families have experienced to-
day with no warning.”
Joe Neguse, a congressman from
Colorado, told CNN that the state had
never seen fires like these. He said:
“These are unprecedented wildfires
that have just created a level of devasta-
tion and destruction that our state has
not experienced before.”
The National Weather Service
described the gusts that fuelled the fire
as “truly historic”.
A reprieve may soon come in the
form of a “weather whiplash” from fire
to snowfall. Although the fires struck
with little warning, they could be
suppressed by the up to 10in of snow
expected to fall by today.
This will be too late for some. Mark
Smith, a football coach at the
University of Colorado, said that hisevacuation orders remain in place
across the state. “We know that
you are concerned about your home/
belongings. We will notify you about
re-entering your homes as soon as we
can!” the Boulder Office of Emergency
Management tweeted.
It added: “Please be patient as we do
our best to protect everyone’s safety.
The recovery process will be a long one,
but we will get through this together
one step at a time.”
Colorado, like much of the western
United States, has been struck by a
serious drought, with scientists saying
climate change is making weather
more extreme and wildfires more fre-
quent and destructive.
Denver, the capital of Colorado, has
seen just over an inch of rainfall in the
past six months, a record low for the
second half of the year.
Boulder is classified as being in an
“extreme drought”, according to the US
Drought Monitor.Ethiopia’s war turns
into a testing ground
for deadliest drones
Ethiopia’s civil war has become a testing
ground for drones, making its people
“guinea pigs”, rebel leaders claim.
The purchase of armed surveillance
drones at a fraction of the cost of fighter
jets and bombers have given Abiy
Ahmed, the prime minister, a weapon
that has forced into retreat the Tigray
People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).
The rebels in the northern region of
Ethiopia have been fighting govern-
ment forces since Abiy launched a mili-
tary campaign in November 2020.
The conflict has been marked by alle-
gations of atrocities, including massa-
cres and mass rapes, by both sides. The
United Nations has expressed concern
about reports of large-scale displace-
ment from western Tigray.
The UN reported this week that only
12 per cent of the food and other aid
needed in the region had been deliv-
ered because of violence and blocked
routes, with women, children and the
elderly most in need.
Abiy, who was awarded the Nobel
peace prize in 2019, has described the
once dominant TPLF as a “cancer”, a
“disease” and “weeds”, casting doubt on
his appetite to use the rebels’ withdraw-
al as an opportunity to strike a deal.
Initially the rebels were 75 miles from
the capital Addis Ababa. The govern-
ment faced violent overthrow.
The TPLF claimed that it never had
ambitions to change the regime “or take
over Addis”. The drone strikes on its
convoys and supply lines made further
progress impossible.
Getachew Reda, a TPLF adviser, de-
nounced the countries selling their
“deadly toys”. He said: “Our land has be-
come a testing ground for different
weapons and our people are the guinea
pigs. The eyes of the world are not on
what is being done.”
The change in fortune for the TPLF
and the role that drones have played
highlights how the concept of warfare
has been transformed. With drones and
foreign expertise, the Ethiopian gov-
ernment has gained aerial superiorityover rebel forces that have neither the
weapons to fight back nor any defence.
Success for the government in Addis
Ababa will be studied closely by other
small nations needing to arm against
internal or external adversaries.
It will also boost the export of armed
drones by countries that have devel-
oped their technology such as Turkey,
Iran and the United Arab Emirates.
Paul Scharre, a former senior Penta-
gon official, said: “It’s no longer just the
big powers such as the US, China,
Russia, UK and France producing
armed drones. Turkey and Iran are sell-
ing significant numbers abroad and for
countries that can’t afford fighter air-
craft, this is a game-changer.”
Drones from Turkey changed the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in 2020when Azerbaijan won a 44-day war
against Armenia for control of the en-
clave. Turkish drone air power saved
Tripoli in the war between Libya’s gov-
ernment of national accord and the
forces of the warlord Khalifa Haftar.
The Ethiopian government began
buying armed drones about a year ago
from Turkey and Iran.
Stacie Pettyjohn, a director at the
Centre for a New American Security,
said: “This spectrum of drone capabili-
ty is like an air force on the cheap for the
Ethiopian government forces. They ac-
quired these drones, initially from Iran,
then the Chinese ones from the Emir-
ates and finally the TB2 from Turkey,
which allowed them to spot rebel
troops and carry out precision strikes.
“The TB2 sticks around for 24 hours,
so they could find rebel forces who had
no way of defending themselves.”
Pettyjohn added that the Tigrayans
were seeking a counter to the drones
“but air defence systems are more
sophisticated and expensive”.Ethiopia
Michael Evans, Jane FlanaganMARC PISCOTTY/GETTY IMAGES); HELEN H. RICHARDSON/THE DENVER POST/AP; TREVOR HUGHES/USA TODAY NETWORK/REUTERSL’eau no! Tap water must do
French bars and cafés have been or-
dered to give customers a free glass of
tap water if they want it, under a law
designed to reduce plastic pollution.
From today, drinking fountains will
also become mandatory in all buildings
open to the public, from nightclubs to
stately homes.
The previous law stipulated that
diners had the right to free tap water, as
well as bread, napkins and salt and pep-
per, when ordering a meal in restau-
rants. It did not apply, however, to bars
and cafés, where customers often ask
for a glass of water with a strong espres-
so or an ice cream.
Most bar and café owners serve one
anyway but some refuse. In Toulouse a
few years ago cafés decided to charge20 cents for a glass of tap water. Now
bars and cafés must tell customers that
tap water is free either on the menu or
with a notice in their establishments.
Failure could lead to fines of up to
€3,000. There is no obligation to serve
water to people who do not order
anything else.
In 2018 the French drank 9 billion
litres of bottled water.
The reform is part of a drive by Presi-
dent Macron’s government to end
single use plastics in France by 2040.
Other measures come in to force today
including a ban on wrapping fruit and
vegetables in plastic.
McDonald’s stopped selling bottled
water in France in the autumn but
charges €1.70 for 25cl of it in a paper
cup. Capital, a financial weekly news-
paper, described the charge as the
“fraud of the century”.France
Adam SageDenverLouisvilleSuperiorCOLORADOFive milesCivil war has left
Ethiopians on both
sides in despairLouisville, Colorado,
top, and Boulder, far
left, were in the path
of the fires, which
forced emergency
workers to retreat
and left an orange
haze over the area