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Article

16 Apr 2015

Author:
Sasha Chavkin, ICIJ / Huffington Post

"Rights Denied - New Evidence Ties World Bank To Human Rights Abuses In Ethiopia"

...Otiri and Omot are among thousands of Anuak, a mostly Christian indigenous group from the rural Ethiopian state of Gambella, who have fled from Ethiopia’s mass relocation campaign.

The Ethiopian government financed the evictions in part by tapping into a pool of aid money from the world’s most influential development lender, the World Bank, two former Ethiopian officials who helped carry out the relocation program told the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The money, the former officials said, was diverted from the $2 billion in funding that the World Bank had put into a health and education initiative.

The World Bank strongly disputes that its money supported the mass evictions in western Ethiopia. Even as Anuak refugees and human rights groups have publicly charged that World Bank money has been used to bankroll brutal evictions, the bank has continued to send hundreds of millions of dollars into the same health and education program...

...Among the largest leaseholders in Gambella is Saudi Star, a conglomerate owned by Ethiopia’s richest man, Saudi dual citizen Sheikh Mohammed Al-Amoudi.

Land previously occupied by Anuak is now being used by Saudi Star for commercial plantations, according to two Anuak elders interviewed by ICIJ and reports by the Oakland Institute and Human Rights Watch. The government cleared small villages within what became the Saudi Star lease area and relocated the residents as part of the villagization program, the Oakland Institute’s report said.

A spokeswoman for the sheikh confirmed that Saudi Star has leased 10,000 hectares in Gambella, but denied any of the land had been occupied by Anuak. “No people or farmers were relocated from the land on which Saudi Star is operating,” she said.

She said any suggestions the company improperly benefited from the government’s land-use decisions are fabrications fueled by “advocacy groups with a political agenda.” [additional comment by Saudi Star on this issue here]

 

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