The land grab in Ethiopia is not limited to “investors” from China, India, and Saudi Arabia. In fact, TPLF members are grabbing more fertile land in southern and western Ethiopia than China, India and Saudi combined, according to Ethiopian Review sources.
In investigating land grab by the TPLF members, Ethiopian Review Intelligence Unit has stumbled upon a particular evidence that shows how a person named Dr Te’ame Hadgu Embaye took over a land almost half the size of Washington DC for a monthly rent of about $8 per square kilometers, the first payment to be paid after 3 years of signing the contract. (Click here to read the agreement).
The massive land was given to Dr Teame Hadgu Embaye, who resides in Minneapolis (USA), to grow cotton and peanut for export to the Middle East. Because of the heavy use of chemical fertilizers, the land will be rendered useless within a few years, i.e., before Dr Teame starts paying rent for the land. The people of South Omo, whose land Dr Teame is profiting from, will receive little or no benefit. They will be left with a destroyed, barren land.
While we focus on land grab by China and Saudi Arabia, we seem to have ignored the equally devastating land grab by the TPLF mafia that is displacing local farmers and residents.
It is also important to note that TPLF members heavily invest in companies such as Karturi, the king of Indian land grabbers, but their names are kept off the books.