A former U.S. government contractor has admitted passing top-secret satellite imagery and classified intelligence reports to Ethiopian officials who used the material in military operations against rebel forces, the Justice Department said Tuesday. Abraham Teklu Lemma, 54, of Silver Spring, Maryland, pleaded guilty in federal court in Washington to conspiring to transmit national defense information to a foreign government.
The Technical Reality
The charging documents make clear that Lemma did not supply weapons. He supplied the targeting data and operational advice that make weapons effective. As an information technology contractor at the State Department, the Justice Department, and the National Reconnaissance Office — the agency that designs, builds, and operates the nation’s spy satellites — Lemma had access to the intelligence pipelines that feed U.S. military and diplomatic decision-making. Between 2021 and his arrest in August 2023, prosecutors say, he sent top-secret satellite imagery and classified reports through an encrypted messaging application to Ethiopian government operatives. He also urged his contacts to deploy armed drones against opponents of the federal government.
“We have to finish these people once and for all, otherwise there will never be peace in Ethiopia,” Lemma wrote in a December 2021 message to an Ethiopian contact, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington. FBI counterintelligence official Roman Rozhavsky told the court that Lemma admitted Ethiopian officials used the intelligence he supplied in military operations. The Justice Department statement did not identify the specific operations or say whether anyone was killed as a result.
Under the Hood of the Leak
The detail that matters is the duration and the channel. Lemma was not a one-off leaker. The technical reality is that NRO imagery, particularly at top-secret classification, provides resolution and revisit rates that commercial satellites cannot match. That kind of data, paired with classified intelligence reports, changes the calculus for drone strikes and artillery targeting. Lemma’s access as an IT contractor across three agencies suggests he understood the architecture of the intelligence community’s distribution networks, not just the content of the files.
Context: Two Wars, One Pipeline
The disclosures began during Ethiopia’s 2020–2022 war between federal forces and Tigrayan fighters, a conflict that researchers at Belgium’s Ghent University estimated killed 500,000 civilians through violence, famine, and the collapse of health services. The Pretoria peace agreement that ended that phase held for roughly two years. Then, in late September 2026, seven groups opposed to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government formed the Alliance for Survival with the explicit aim of removing him from power.
As ever, the regional dynamics are messy. Eritrea — which sits on Ethiopia’s north-eastern border — has reportedly sent troops into Ethiopian territory in support of the TPLF. Ethiopia’s desire to take over Eritrea’s Assab Port has raised tensions. Egypt, Somalia, and Sudan have expressed support for the Eritrean-TPLF side, while Ethiopia maintains close ties with the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan’s civil war and the United Arab Emirates in the Gulf. In October, the leaders of Egypt, Eritrea, Somalia, and Sudan issued a joint declaration calling for political solutions and pushing back against Ethiopian policies, including its pursuit of sovereign access to the Red Sea.
What Comes Next
Lemma faces a potential sentence ranging from 10 years to nearly 22 years. Sentencing is set for April. The Ethiopian government has not released any public statement on the case.
Sources
- U.S. contractor admits passing U.S. top-secret information to Ethiopia in its war against rebels
- Ethiopian Civil War
- War in Ethiopia Begins Anew: Stakes for Africa and Beyond – Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft
- Ethiopia: Who is fighting whom — and why?
- Ethiopia And Eritrea Have Severed Diplomatic Ties, Threatening Regional Peace In The Horn Of Africa
- Four African leaders issue joint declaration as Ethiopia war escalates – Hiiraan Online
Photo: United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri (Public domain)
