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Article

17 Jun 2019

Author:
Oakland Institute

Report says Ethiopia’s indigenous peoples face acute hunger, displacement by dam and sugarcane plantations

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"Ethiopia’s Indigenous Face Acute Hunger, Displacement by Dam and Sugarcane Plantations"

In a new report, How They Tricked Us: Living with the Gibe III Dam and Sugarcane Plantations in Southwest Ethiopia, the Oakland Institute reveals the dire situation faced by the Indigenous in Ethiopia's Lower Omo Valley and calls for urgent action by the government. For years, the Oakland Institute has raised alarm about the threats that the Gibe III Dam and sugarcane plantations pose to the local population in the region. Now, several years on, new field research reveals the true impact on the Indigenous communities, who have called the area home for centuries.

“Over the past year, the country, now led by Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed, has gone through tremendous changes starting with the release of thousands of political prisoners, including Indigenous leaders and activists,” said Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director of the Oakland Institute. “Change, however, has not reached the Bodi, Mursi, and Kwegu communities of Lower Omo—many who were forcibly evicted under the previous regime to make way for the construction of the Gibe III Dam and sugarcane plantations—and today face loss of livelihoods, starvation, and violent conflict,” she continued.

How They Tricked Us details the impact of these projects on local communities, including the loss of essential farmland and grazing land. Acute hunger is now common with the dam's blockage of the annual flood—a natural event that the inhabitants of the valley have relied on for centuries for cultivation. Communities allege being tricked into leaving their ancestral land by the government's false assurances of a controlled flood to compensate for the loss, which has not happened.