Investigative journalist @Bellingcat focused on conflict & human rights. Previously with @BBC Verify, @Cen4infores. Views are my own.

London, England
Sebastian Vandermeersch retweeted
Remnants of one-way attack UAVs of UAE origin, which ARES has designated as TMID-0014, reportedly filmed at a school in Tigray, Ethiopian. Remnants include the warhead compartment access panel, engine, and wing.
Federal Forces are using kamikaze drones at a large scale. This wreckage matching UAE supplied OWAs, was filmed inside a destroyed school in Tigray.
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Sebastian Vandermeersch retweeted
Looks like this imagery has now been removed from Israel's GovMaps. I'll work on getting the archived version up somewhere ASAP
This shows the reality of Gaza in shocking resolution. I've scraped and exported all the imagery, totalling around 2.5 billion pixels at 13cm resolution, for safe keeping, in case they decide to take this imagery offline. If this happens, keep an eye out for access.
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Sebastian Vandermeersch retweeted
Fourteen years ago, a video was posted to YouTube, showing Austin Tice, an American journalist who had been abducted in Syria being dragged up a mountainside. We've geolocated it next to a Syrian military site, visually confirming it was the regime who took him. 🧵
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Sebastian Vandermeersch retweeted
Today marks three years since Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger announced the creation of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). Today the alliance is reshaping the region's security architecture. But its expanding reliance on drones, Russian security personnel, and new procurement channels raises a basic question: who is accountable when strikes kill civilians? Today we released our latest reporting, alongside an investigation by @matteomaillard and Julie Desrousseaux of @jeune_afrique, with @bellingcat: thesentry.org/reports/respon… jeuneafrique.com/1841995/pol…
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Sebastian Vandermeersch retweeted
NEW: An explosion that ripped through a wedding celebration in southern Iran on Tuesday, killing four people (including 2 minors) and injuring at least 68 others, likely resulted from a direct hit by a U.S. munition and not a ricochet off another target, according to an analysis by weapons experts who reviewed images and video verified by Reuters. I spoke with 4 munitions analysts who agreed that the strike on the wedding gathering was a direct hit. Three experts said it was unlikely that a misfired Iranian missile had destroyed the home. Thank you to @Easybakeovensz, @bastischutte & Gareth Collett for your insights. I also spoke with @haalvsh and @balochistanhrdn to confirm local accounts of what happened the evening of September 1. Many thanks to my hamvatans who spoke with us, despite the continued systematic state intimidation on people speaking with media. Great team effort with Edward Carron, @idreesali114, Emily Giles, all of @ReutersWitness & @SarahCahlan reuters.com/investigations/d…
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Sebastian Vandermeersch retweeted
Remnant of a JDAM bomb guidance kit reportedly found after this strike in Qeshm City, Iran which killed three people.
🔴 Three members of a family, parents and their 2-year-old child, were killed in a U.S. strike on a residential home in Qeshm City’s Chahtango neighborhood, according to Hormozgan University of Medical Sciences, per Fars News. Two children, ages 7 and 9, were rescued from beneath the rubble and taken to the hospital.
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Sebastian Vandermeersch retweeted
On June 16, Ahmed, a 20-year-old-miner prospecting for gold in the mountains of Egypt’s Jabal al-Uqaydat mining region, north of the Halayeb Triangle, awoke to the sound of an airstrike on the mine he was working in. His fellow miners began to flee. Over the course of the next few hours and days, it became clear to Ahmed and the seven other miners Mada Masr spoke to that an extensive security operation was underway. In addition to mapping out what took place on the ground, Mada Masr spoke to two senior Egyptian officials, who confirmed the airstrikes, as well as tribal sources and Sudanese officials, to unpack the economic, security and political dynamics behind the unprecedented operation. Read the full story here: bit.ly/4eKfVht
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Sebastian Vandermeersch retweeted
Reporters Without Borders Says Rapid Support Forces Are Using Sham Legal Proceedings to Justify the Detention of Journalist Mouammar Ibrahim Reporters Without Borders has accused the Rapid Support Forces of using sham legal proceedings to justify the continued detention of Sudanese journalist Mouammar Ibrahim, more than eight months after he was arrested during the fall of El Fasher in North Darfur. Mouammar Ibrahim, a 30-year-old freelance journalist and contributor to Al Jazeera Mubasher, was detained by the Rapid Support Forces on 26 October 2025, as the paramilitary group took control of El Fasher after a siege that lasted nearly a year and a half. Since his arrest, his family has had no direct contact with him, and the Rapid Support Forces have not clearly disclosed where he is being held. Reporters Without Borders said the Rapid Support Forces continue to claim that Ibrahim is under investigation and will soon face trial. However, the press freedom organisation said the group has presented no evidence to legally justify his detention. It described the case as an attempt to give a false legal cover to arbitrary imprisonment. Martin Roux, head of the Reporters Without Borders Crisis Desk, said the parallel government led by the Rapid Support Forces, which has no international recognition, is fooling no one with its claims of investigating Ibrahim. He warned that the journalist is being held in conditions that pose a grave threat to his life and called for his immediate and unconditional release. The last public indication that Ibrahim was still alive came on 1 June, during a live interview on Al Jazeera Mubasher. Rapid Support Forces spokesman General al-Fatih Gurashi confirmed that the journalist remained in custody, but did not reveal his place of detention. Gurashi accused Ibrahim of fighting for what the Rapid Support Forces call the “Islamist movement’s army,” a term they use to describe the Sudanese Armed Forces, and said he would be put on trial. According to the Rapid Support Forces and their political allies, who announced a parallel government in late August 2025 that remains unrecognised by the United Nations, the accusations against Ibrahim are based on posts he published on X and Facebook during the siege of El Fasher. He is accused of spreading false information and inciting discord among the population. Reporters Without Borders said that, after reviewing Ibrahim’s social media posts, it found that he had documented famine, bombardment, and the killing of civilians during the nearly 500-day siege of El Fasher. That siege ended in a major assault which a United Nations fact-finding mission said bore the “hallmarks of genocide,” while Amnesty International described events there as “ethnic cleansing.” Ibrahim also reported on fighting between the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces, described the Rapid Support Forces as a militia, and published accounts alleging the use of toxic substances against civilians. Similar allegations were documented by Sudanese activists and doctors on the ground. In some posts, he referred to the Rapid Support Forces as the Janjaweed, a term associated with the militias mobilised by former dictator Omar al-Bashir during the Darfur war in the early 2000s, from which many Rapid Support Forces commanders emerged. Reporters Without Borders said these posts appear to have been used as a pretext to accuse Ibrahim of working for the Sudanese Armed Forces. The organisation framed the case as the punishment of a journalist for documenting abuses during one of the deadliest chapters of Sudan’s war. Concerns over Ibrahim’s health have also intensified. On 15 May, the Sudanese Journalists Syndicate said it had received confirmed information that he was being held at Digris prison, about twelve kilometres west of Nyala, the capital of South Darfur and one of the main Rapid Support Forces command centres. The syndicate warned that his health had severely deteriorated and said he was being denied medical examinations and treatment, creating a direct threat to his life. Digris prison is reportedly severely overcrowded and marked by appalling sanitary conditions, with several thousand detainees held there according to various sources. Al Jazeera Media Network has also expressed deep concern for Ibrahim’s health and safety. A report published by Sudan Defenders on 30 June suggested that he remained detained at Digris prison. However, Reporters Without Borders said credible sources also point to the possibility that Ibrahim may be held at another detention site inside Nyala itself. According to a journalist who was held in that facility before the war and before the Rapid Support Forces took over the city, the building contains four solitary confinement cells and two communal cells. General Gurashi did not respond to Reporters Without Borders’ questions about Ibrahim’s whereabouts. The uncertainty surrounding Ibrahim’s place of detention and conditions has deepened the suffering of his family. His younger brother told Reporters Without Borders that their last conversation took place only days before El Fasher fell. At the time, the family was preparing to flee to northern Sudan, while Ibrahim chose to remain in the city to continue his reporting until the final moments. Ibrahim’s case has become another symbol of the dangers facing Sudanese journalists, especially those who documented the siege and fall of El Fasher. Reporters Without Borders is calling on the Rapid Support Forces to end the sham proceedings, reveal where Ibrahim is being held, allow his family and lawyers to contact him, provide him with urgent medical care, and release him immediately and unconditionally. #Sudan #RSFisTerroristOrganization #UAEKillsSudanesePeople #UAESponsorsTerrorism
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Hundreds of people were reportedly detained under the #UAE's cybercrime laws to suppress footage of Iranian strikes. It was a pleasure to join Catherine Barnwell on the latest episode of Photo Evidence for @bellingcat, where we examined the strikes. piped.video/watch?v=y4II2Vrr…
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Sebastian Vandermeersch retweeted
In case you missed it, here's a reminder : Investigations by @bellingcat and partners found evidence that Russian-made ShOAB-0.5 cluster bomblets were used in May 2026 airstrikes near Tadjmart in northern #Mali, likely deployed from RBK-500 cluster bombs during operations claimed by the Malian Armed Forces and the #AfricaCorps. The reported use of cluster munitions has sparked criticism because Mali is a signatory to the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which prohibits the use and assistance of such weapons due to their indiscriminate effects and long-term danger to civilians.
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Sebastian Vandermeersch retweeted
Footage analysed by Bellingcat and Jeune Afrique shows unexploded Russian-made submunitions found in northern Mali - Despite Mali being a state party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions (CCM) which prohibits their use.
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Glad to have played a small part in bringing this heart-breaking story of monetised animal-cruelty to light. Geolocating dogs was a first for me. Exceptional investigation by @ChFrancavilla, @BBCMiriam and others! Watch here: piped.video/watch?v=pFnXT8PJ… #Uganda #OSINT
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Latest video by @Bellingcat. Read the full story here: bellingcat.com/news/2026/04/…
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Sebastian Vandermeersch retweeted
Bellingcat updated a tool made by @oballinger to show areas with potential damage over Iran and the Gulf States. This tool works by comparing new Sentinel-1 SAR imagery to older imagery to detect changes, with can indicate that a building has been damaged or destroyed
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Sebastian Vandermeersch retweeted
Government and allied forces in Burkina Faso have killed more than twice as many civilians as Islamist militants have since 2023, according to a tally of incidents documented in a report published by Human Rights Watch reut.rs/4tm44f1
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