Matt Williams

I am a writer and journalist with eight years of experience covering humanitarian crises and conflicts around the world. I previously reported for The Economist. For more than eight years, I have written and reported on humanitarian crises and conflicts around the world including Ukraine, Syria, Afghanistan and Ethiopia.
At The Economist, I reported on the systemic campaign of enforced disappearances conducted by Vladimir Putin’s forces in Ukraine and the reemergence of Russia’s brutal detention centres since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of the country in 2022. I also covered Russia’s missing soldiers crisis, and how the war in Ukraine has left thousands of families in legal limbo.
I have contributed to coverage of Afghanistan’s crisis, covering violence under the Taliban and the country’s deepening humanitarian crisis. I also did some daily news briefings on the civil war in Myanmar, including the government’s scorched earth policy and the Rohingya refugee crisis. I have covered broader human rights issues, including the imprisonment of journalists and the killing and kidnapping of aid workers. I have worked previously at Financial Times, The Telegraph and The New Humanitarian and formerly worked in the non-governmental sector at the Centre for Information Resilience, Amnesty International and Action Against Hunger. I am currently writing my first book on Syria’s civil war — Kingdom of Ash: The Rise and Fall of the Assad Dynasty.
The Middle East
In the wake of the October 7 attacks, Israel’s willingness to push an old emergency law to new extremes is sobering.
The future is bleak for the Holy Land as war resumes in Gaza.
The ‘State of Judea’ is replacing the ‘State of Israel’ with far reaching consequences
The Israeli army is systematically working to empty northern Gaza of its residents
The world has turned a blind eye to the suffering of Palestinians, dismissing their rights and their very existence
A year of war and atrocities has devastated the strip
Thousands of foreigners fighting for the Israeli army in Gaza and the West Bank face scrutiny and potential prosecution
As Gaza burns, Kahanist zealots are threatening to consume Israel.
As with Bosnia and Darfur, Israel’s genocide in Gaza will stain the country for generations
Mounting atrocities in Gaza will scar Israel and Palestine for decades.
The Middle East security scholar on why Israel will stuggle to eliminate Hamas.
Israel faces grim choices as Gaza bleeds to death
A conversation with Ahron Bregman
High-profile assassinations, radical breaks with policy and impulsive decisions have defined Trump’s agenda in the Middle East.
2020 has proven that Syria’s already desperate situation can get immeasurably worse.
The Covid-19 pandemic has done little to deter Israeli land grabs and violence in East Jerusalem.
Under Netanyahu’s government, a decade of anti-immigrant rhetoric and riots, an increase in mass deportations of African refugees and police brutality has seen a surge in activism against systemic racism in Israel’s Ethiopian community.
Turkey and the intra-jihadist conflict in northern Syria.
Idlib’s conflict has been frozen by Turkey and Russia. With the humanitarian crisis deepening, will it hold?
As the humanitarian catastrophe in northwest Syria deepens, Turkey, Russia and Syria’s rivalry has mutated into direct conflict.
President Trump’s assassination of Iran’s top commander has cemented his destruction of the Iranian nuclear deal, and pushed the Middle East closer to a major regional war.
Iraqi officials are being investigated for crimes against humanity, and the government’s violence could spark another Arab revolution.
With revolution and protests convulsing the Middle East again, the Assad regime will be vulnerable for years to come.
The leader of Islamic State is dead, however his poisonous legacy will take generations to defeat.
Turkey and the ‘National Army’ have altered the course of the Syrian War, and the demographics of north.
Islamic State’s atrocities and genocidal violence against minorities have reshaped Iraq and Syria.
EUROPE
Chechen fighters are preparing for another showdown with Vladimir Putin’s regime
Press coverage of the war Ukraine is on the decline
Ukraine’s offensive near Kharkiv has dealt Russian forces a significant blow
The Economist





A man-made famine, systematically engineered by the Israeli military, is consuming Gaza.