"Right now, the Ethiopian government is forcing 200,000 indigenous Anuak people off their ancestral farmlands, grazing lands, and forests in the Gambella region. It is shameful that U.S. tax dollars could be directly or indirectly supporting such devastating human rights violations," says Palmer.

Grab the Land


By Josh Tetrick
Founder of Beyond Eggs, a sustainable food company

April 3, 2012


It's a global trend, and not a good one.

It's called land grabbing, and it's happening on a massive scale -- especially in Africa. For millions of indigenous villagers and pastoralists it means forced relocation, loss of livelihoods, and a death blow to their ancient cultures. Ethiopia is a sad example of the worst of these outcomes.

"Right now, the Ethiopian government is forcing 200,000 indigenous Anuak people off their ancestral farmlands, grazing lands, and forests in the Gambella region," says Paula Palmer, director of the Ethiopia Campaign at Cultural Survival, a non-profit that defends the rights of indigenous people worldwide.

Once the indigenous people are herded off the fertile land, it's then leased for industrial agriculture. As the bulldozers move in, habitats are destroyed, including, in Ethiopia's case, Gambella's last remaining forests and wetlands. According to the Oakland Institute, Ethiopia has transferred 3,619,509 hectares of land. And despite government claims that such forced taking of land for private investment brings in needed currency, there are "no mechanisms in place to ensure that these investments contribute to increased food security," states the Institute's report "Understanding Land Investment Deals in Africa."

What happens to the indigenous people who are removed from their lands? They're hustled off to state-built "villages" with the promise of jobs, healthcare and education. But investigators from Human Rights Watch found little evidence of such amenities. Many of the new villages lack access to water and lands for farming, and Anuak parents don't know how they will manage to feed their children. One Anuak elder told Human Rights Watch that he believed the government "brought the Anuak people here to die."

And, complicating matters further is the fact that Ethiopia is jailing, torturing and exiling journalists and human-rights activists who speak out against these abuses.

Yet, Ethiopia continues to receive more U.S. and foreign relief aid than any other country in Africa. Is this aid underpinning Ethiopia's land-grabbing and forced resettlement policies? What we know is that the resettled Anuak people have been forced into dependence on food aid, and most of that comes from Western governments.

"It is shameful that U.S. tax dollars could be directly or indirectly supporting such devastating human rights violations," says Palmer.

Palmer says Cultural Survival and other organizations are also concerned that the Anuak people -- already the victims of discrimination, arrest, torture and forced resettlement -- may once again be the targets of the military, as they were in 2003 when more than 400 Anuak men were killed. Palmer says she has received on-the-ground reports of Ethiopian troops now converging in Gambella, raising fears that they may cross into South Sudan to target some 3,000 Anuak refugees who fled there after the 2003 massacre.

"There has been a spiraling number of incidents of violence against and arrests of Anuak by the military, creating an atmosphere reminiscent of the 2003 massacre and the two or more years of human rights abuses that followed," says Obang Metho, executive director of the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia and an Anuak refugee living in Ottawa.

There is no sign of the country backing down. Human Rights Watch, in its grimly titled report, "Waiting Here for Death," says the country has plans to forcibly move 1.5 million Indigenous minorities from their native lands by 2013.

"The land-grabbing and 'villagization' programs violate international human rights laws and arguably the Ethiopian constitution," says Suzanne Benally, executive director of Cultural Survival.

Ethiopia continues to haul in $3 billion a year of foreign relief aid. It's time donor nations -- the United States, the United Kingdom, and countries of the European Union -- used their influence with Ethiopia to stop the land grabbing for the enrichment of private investors. Concerned U.S. citizens can send letters to the U.S. State Department via Cultural Survival's website.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-tetr ... ref=impact

Very sad

While Minilk, yebandalutti,awusha, adwa killo and Eden sticks their noses in eritrean azz...their country is sold out....heheheh.I think I shouldn't laugh.

While Minilk, yebandalutti,awusha, adwa killo and Eden sticks their noses in eritrean azz...their country is sold out....heheheh.I think I shouldn't laugh.

They're the ones selling the country and News like this should give them the joy of knowing that they're accomplishing the goals they set out for themselves at the drafting of TPLF's 1976 manifesto. The logic is simple: Ethiopia has to be destroyed for Abay Tigray to come into existence. They already have a Paltalk room set up and running for their Abay Tigray project, of which Eden (lowlander), by his own admission, is the head moderator of the room, and spends his day preaching to Eritreans how good and how pleasant it would be if Eritreans from the highlands could join hands with woyanes and form a new republic made up of Tigrigna speaking people. Yeah, the "lowlander Eden"

There are many Tigrayans born in Eritrea working for the woyane regime and promoting this Abay Tigray agenda on the cyberspace. And with the rise of woyane instigated ethnic and religious conflicts in Ethiopia, the Abay Tigay agenda is no longer kept a secret. One thing I noticed is that, woyanes had foolishly thought the Amhara people would lash out at the people of the Southern regions for the forcible expulsion of thousands of Amhara victims. Well it looks like it backfired on them. The wisdom of the noble Amhara people and the political maturity of their patriotic leaders has prevailed. They place the blame squarely where it belongs -- on the woyanes ! There's hope for Ethiopia.

Ethiopia resettlement plan falls short on development


Employees of Saudi Star rice farm work in a paddy field in Gambella, western Ethiopia


By Jenny Vaughan (AFP)

GAMBELLA, Ethiopia — When the Ethiopian government asked Thwol Othoy if he wanted to be resettled, he agreed, attracted by promises of a better life - a clinic, school for his children and land to farm.

But he now struggles to feed his family. After moving from western Ethiopia to the tiny town of Abobo in the Gambella region, he was allocated less than half his previous two acres on which he used to grow maize.

"The food is not enough," said Thwol, 35, sitting by his thatched hut, barefoot and in tattered shorts with an open shirt exposing his bony chest.

Thwol and his family were moved off government-owned land under the east African nation's two-year-old commune programme, which pools scattered rural residents into new communities, ostensibly to provide them better access to services.


A boy stands in front of a thatched hut in the resettlement village of Kir in Gambella

But some rights groups and observers fear the programme has another goal: to shove farmers aside for eager -- and often foreign -- investors who cultivate land for crops that will be exported to fuel rocketing food demand in China and other developing nations.

"Livelihoods and food security in Gambella are precarious, and the policy is disrupting a delicate balance of survival for many," Human Rights Watch said in a January report.

The government aims to resettle 1.5 million of its approximately 82 million people by next year. Officials say there is nothing sinister about the plan.

"Any society that's scattered, there's no way you can hear their voice or ensure social and economic services," Federal Affairs Minister Shiferaw Teklemariam said. "It is better to (create) organised set-ups."

Ethiopian land is wholly owned by the socialist-leaning government, which leases it out to companies and individuals for farming or livestock grazing.

In the Gambella region -- dense with vegetation and blessed with regular rain and a large river -- 200,000 people, or just over half the region's entire population, are due to be resettled over the next three years. Close to 90,000 people -- or 20,000 households -- have already been moved.

The fields along the river in Gambella are vibrant green and brim with rice husks, but in Kir, a nearby resettlement village, resident Obuk Ojulu said the land was not as fertile and that he had to rely partly on state grain handouts.

"Where we were before, there was good land," said Obuk, 25. "Here it is not good."

Kir has a small clinic, though its supplies are usually low and a nearby school has no teachers, just rows of kids flipping idly through tattered and outdated textbooks.

Regional agricultural department head Ahmoud Oto denied food shortages and insisted villagers are better off.

"Previously, where they were living, they were not benefiting from services," he said. "Now they are beneficiaries of clean water, health and education."

Human Rights Watch has accused the government of pushing communities off the land to make way for investors, who already occupy 500,000 hectares (2,000 square miles) of land in the region.

As incentives, the government offers tax breaks, pools of cheap labour and long-term leases of fertile land at affordable rates.

An additional 1.2 million hectares (4,600 square miles) is earmarked for agricultural investors in Gambella over the next three years.

Authorities insist investment boosts development by creating jobs and spurring economic growth, but Human Rights Watch senior researcher Ben Rawlence said residents' needs are being overlooked.

"Everybody wants better access to services, the problem is how it happens," he told AFP by phone from London.

"The right of development is not just the right of the state to bulldoze land. It's also the right of the people to choose how they want to develop."

Human Rights Watch warns the resettlement programme is reminiscent of the "collectivisation" drive by the authoritarian military regime in the 1970s that forcibly relocated 13 million people -- often violently -- but ultimately failed because no services were provided. Thousands died as a result.

Milkesa Wakjira, processing coordinator for the Ethiopian-owned Saudi Star company, which rents a 10,000-hectare (40-square-mile) plot near Abobo, defended the leasing of land.

"This is not a question of land grabbing," he said, standing before a sprawling green rice paddy as tractors trundled by. "If the land belongs to the government, no one is in a position to grab it because if the government wants the land, they can take it back."

Wakjira said the community welcomes the new jobs and the company's efforts to pave the area's jumbled dirt tracks. Saudi Star has also given two cars to the local district and donated 200 beehives to local farmers.

But more than 50 percent of the rice Saudi Star grows here is exported, mainly to Saudi Arabia, Wakjira said.

Opening its doors to foreign investors is part of the government's ambitious Growth and Transformation Plan, which aims to boost Ethiopia's economic growth and reach middle-income status by 2015.

The International Monetary Fund says Ethiopia's economy is growing at a rate of 7.5 percent, though the government pegs growth at 11 percent. The country's main exports are livestock, coffee and agriculture.

Despite the scarcity of food and land, Thwol says he will tough it out in Abobo for now.

"School is here, clinic is here and small water is here," he said.

Even though his plot of land has shrunk, he prefers to be near these services, no matter how under-resourced they are.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/ar ... daf4f6.221

Ethiopia to Export 60,000mt Banana to Saudi



Wednesday, 04 April 2012
Tewodros Mengistu Ethiopian Business News - Trading


Ethiopian Horticulture Development Agency (EHDA) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with International Saudi Agriculture (ISA) so as to enable the latter exporting organic banana to Saudi Arabia.

While signing the agreement, the Director General of EHDA Haileselassie Tekie said the agreement will enable Ethiopia to secure more than 100 million USD from the export of 60,000 tons of organic banana to Saudi Arabia within six months.

The agreement will benefit up to 30,000 small holder farmers directly or indirectly involved in the cultivation of organic banana by getting a better market price for the product. Besides, the export will create jobs for lots of compatriots in Arba Minch and the nearest localities in the SNNPs.

More than 13,000 hectares of land has being cultivated with organic banana in the Southern Nations Nationalities and People’s State.

The General Manager of ISA, Abdulkareem Al-Ghamdi, on his part said as the demand of Ethiopian organic banana is very high, the company has decided to engage in the export of organic banana to the international market.

The company is planning to provide trainings on post harvest handling to meet the standards of the international market. This will also build the capacity of the smallholder farmers and benefit the country from technology transfer in the sector.

The company has already finalized preparations to commence the export to Saudi Arabia shortly, according to General Manager.

Common Fund for Commodities (CFC), a funding organization, in collaboration with Bioversity International, a project executing agent, have been providing support and working closely with Ethiopian Horticulture Development Agency (EHDA) so as to improve the quality of Ethiopian organic banana. After the implementation of the CFC funding project, Ethiopia has already started to export organic banana to the global market.

International Saudi Agriculture (ISA) is one of the Dr. Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Ali Al Amoudi companies working in the Agriculture sector.

Source: This news article was prepared and sent to 2merkato.com by Mekonnen Hailu, Ethiopian Horticulture Development Agency (EHDA)'s senior communication expert.