Ethiopia Relocates 150,000 People in Eastern Somali Region in Five Months

[Qodax Qorax]

Ethiopia Relocates 150,000 People in Eastern Somali Region in Five Months

 

By William Davison - Nov 29, 2010 2:36 PM GMT+0100

Bloomberg

The Ethiopian government has relocated about 150,000 people in the eastern Somali region to more fertile areas in the past five months, the Minister for Federal Affairs said.

 

Scattered households have been brought together into villages to raise their “quality of life,” Shiferaw Teklemariam said in an interview today in the capital, Addis Ababa.

 

In the next seven months, another 70,000 households, or 350,000 people, will move into “communes” in the arid region, Shiferaw said. Similar programs are taking place in other states. About 45,000 households will be moved in Gambella, almost three-quarters of the population; 45,000 in Benishangul Gumuz; and 50,000 to 80,000 in the Afar region.

 

“It’s a very ambitious program,” Shiferaw said. “We don’t want anyone to be left behind” as the government targets economic growth of between 11 percent and 14.9 percent, he said.

 

The projects in the western Gambella and Benishangul Gumuz regions are three-year schemes to improve service provision, while the one-year programs in the Afar and Somali regions are primarily to resettle people in less arid areas near the Wabe Shebelle and Awash rivers, Shiferaw said.

 

The policy in Somali region was not designed to assist the government’s campaign against ethnic Somali rebels, although “it may help in the long run,” Shiferaw said. Neither is it related to the national plan to lease 3 million hectares (7.4 million acres) of “untouched” land for large-scale agriculture over the next 5 years, he said.

 

“Some people think the communes are to clear land to give to someone else, but this is not the case,” he said. “We have excess land for investors.”

 

People won’t be forced to move and have the right to return home, Shiferaw said. The government will not claim their old plots for at least two years.

 

To contact the reporter on this story: William Davison in Addis Ababa via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.

[Qodax Qorax]

This is a campaign by the Ethiopian goverment to cleanse the land from certain ethnicities.

 

Very sad, wallahi.

 

 

That's why I am saying unite with all Somali people in that region and you will stand stronger together.

 

Or continue fighting with your small sub sub clan for O-gadenia, and you will be divided and isolated from all other somali's and eventually cleansed from your lands.

 

Do you know the number of Oromo's in Jigjiga is increasing day by day and they will form soon the majority of that city?

 

Never mind, waxba ma fahmisiin.

[Allamagan]

Lol@wax ma fahmisiin! U right, devided we fall united we stand. This too applies to secessionists better they stop this iyo dadka aad iska dhex faqooqeysaan!

[Qodax Qorax]

Originally posted by Allamagan:

Lol@wax ma fahmisiin! U right, devided we fall united we stand. This too applies to secessionists better they stop this iyo dadka aad iska dhex faqooqeysaan!

Sxb, Somaliland can afford to choose its own path and it has choosen its own path of indepedance.

 

Because they do have the peace, freedom and self-determination. Therefore they do not need to give up something which they already have (peace, freedom or self-determination). If you want Somaliland to give up on seld-determination or independence, what will you give them in return?

 

die politischen realiteit is einfach

[Che -Guevara]

Mengiste tried to do the same thing with the Tigray population at the height of the TPLF offensive. This was to deny the rebellion movements of possible recruits and to disfranchise the community at large.

 

Looks like Zenawi is taking a page from Mengiste's book.

[Qodax Qorax]

Originally posted by Che -Guevara:

Looks like Zenawi is taking a page from Mengiste's book.

Zenawi has used many pages that Mengistu was known for. Divide and rule. Mengistu did it with the Oromo's in Ethiopia, Zenawi with the Somali's. Also people in the somali community now fears eachother, dont trust eachother, they patrafied for eachothers kin, full of spies and as side effect, everyone trust the Xabashi's in the goverment. Just like the Oromo's, dont trust eachother.