The hotel I live in was inaugurated in 1969 by Emperor Haile Selassie and was then the city's most beautiful.

Addis Ababa usually grows around so it cracks.

But now the half-finished skyscrapers stretch like desolate concrete skeletons towards the sky.

The work stands still. 

There are state of emergency throughout the country and Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has asked everyone to arm themselves to defend the capital.

There are reports that the TPLF's army is advancing against Addis Ababa.

Virtually all Western embassies have reduced their staff and, among many others, Sweden has travel advice for the whole of Ethiopia.

The hotel's swimming pool has the shape of a Coptic cross.

In it, Uganda's dictator Idi Amin swam clothed in front of the TV cameras in 1976. The clip is on Youtube for those who want to watch.

In the pool, some of the greatly reduced crowd splash westerners.

A red-burnt American boy starts crying at the table next to him.

He was in too much of a hurry to eat the pizza and dropped a hot piece of ham on his bare leg.

"You never know who's listening"

- We have reliable reports that 13 children died of malnutrition at a clinic yesterday, says a southern European diplomat and leans forward across the table.

He speaks quietly.

You can never know who is listening to a place like this.

Floors ten and eleven are cordoned off.

Reserved for ministers, it is said.

So you keep track of them.

If one of them secretly leaves the country, the facade begins to crackle.

The fact that government forces are now at risk of defeat becomes too clear.

In war, it is important to have a monopoly on the truth. 

Pictures are published of thousands of young men on their way to the front.

The pictures are meant to show patriotic men who will save the country, but I only see poorly equipped boys who are about to become cannon fodder.

Millions on the run

This war is cruel.

Millions are on the run and hundreds of thousands are living on the brink of starvation.

But it is as if the leaders on both sides see it as something that happens in war. 

I meet some journalists from the international media in the evening.

They have been here a long time and swear in every other sense.

All this is just fuckin 'too damn right now.

Outside in the dark, a herd of wild dogs runs. 

I'm talking to a man with roots in Tigray.

He draws a map on a napkin.

The front line shows how the rebels are only a couple of miles from reaching the highway to Djibouti.

It is the artery that supplies the capital with goods and fuel.

If it is strangled, it is a game over for the government, he says.

- TPLF are too strong and they will never accept that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed remains, he says and puts down the pen. 

He carefully drowns his napkin card in a half-drunk coffee.

Reports have surfaced of mass arrests of tigers in Addis Ababa and more than 70 UN staff members were arrested in a wave.

No ethnicity has been indicated, but it is understood that these are tigers.

The man with the map also has an ID card indicating that he comes from the wrong region. 

In my inbox are several emails from Swedish Ethiopians.

For some of those who write, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who received the Nobel Peace Prize 2019, is still Africa's Obama.

The hero who fights the villains in TPLF, which was dominant in the previous regime in the country.

When Abiy was called when he received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019. In the other emails, Abiy is a tyrant who is currently committing genocide in Tigray through a forced famine. 

But everyone who writes wants me to tell their version.

Otherwise I'm lying.

Feels like the Titanic

Once the dust has settled in this conflict, many risk ending up in trial in The Hague for war crimes.

Maybe even a rebel leader or a peace prize winner.

According to a UN report, both sides have committed atrocious abuses.

I take one of the increasingly unusual dilapidated Lada taxis back to the hotel.

There I sit by the pool again.

The sun goes down over Addis Ababa and by the pool the band plays Hotel California.

It feels like we are on board the Titanic and that the iceberg is approaching in the dark. 

Is this the death knell for East Africa's star, Ethiopia?