Members of the Mursi tribe, an agro-pastoralist tribe in southwestern Ethiopia are seen on October 4, 2019 in the Lower Omo Valley. |
Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA
For decades, herders in
Ethiopia's Lower Omo Valley have relied on guns to fend off rivals as well as
hyenas and lions roaming the forests and plains.
But over the past month, security
forces have embarked on a campaign of forced disarmament that pastoralist
leaders say has been accompanied by shooting of civilians, mass detentions and
beatings.
Witness accounts from the Lower
Omo Valley bolster critics who contend that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed—named the
winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize—is presiding over a deteriorating
security situation, worsened by the actions of the military and police.
The violence is unfolding ahead
of elections next year in one of the country's most volatile and ethnically
diverse areas: the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region.
Elders from the Bodi community,
the main group earmarked for disarmament in the Lower Omo Valley, told AFP
nearly 40 people had been killed as of mid-October but the toll could be far
higher.
Officials deny this account and
defend the disarmament campaign as crucial for peace in this sensitive region.
"They are killing without
any reason," said Shegedin, a Bodi elder who was detained for several days
and asked that his full name not be used because he feared reprisals.
"They just go to the
villages, and if you run they start shooting."
Government and security officials
in Jinka, the administrative centre for the South Omo zone, said the
disarmament campaign was necessary to secure state development projects
including sugar plantations in the area.
But as reports of abuses
multiply, human rights groups and researchers who work in the region are
calling for investigations.
"The accounts I have seen
are sufficiently shocking and come from sufficiently reliable sources to make
it imperative that they are investigated by an internationally respected human
rights organisation," said David Turton, an anthropologist at the
University of Oxford who has worked in the region for 50 years.
Failure to investigate "will
only add to suspicions that the accounts we've heard are in fact
accurate", he said.
Tensions between the Bodi and the
government are long-running, fuelled by Bodi anger at what they describe as the
loss of their land to Ethiopians resettled from other regions and to development
projects like the Gibe III dam and sugar plantations.
But the elders said the latest
violence represents a major escalation.
They said Bodi men and women
detained in the town of Hana had been deprived of food and forced to stand for
hours in the sun.
They accused security forces of
digging up the buried remains of a Bodi spiritual leader and shooting them.
And they said security forces
shaved off the hair of one man who had grown it long following the death of his
brother—a traditional Bodi mourning custom—and forced him to eat it.
"We've never seen anything
like this," said Shegedin, one of three Bodi elders who spoke with AFP.
Federal security forces assumed
control of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region back in
July.
The move followed weeks of unrest
resulting from a bid by the Sidama ethnic group to form a new regional state.
Ten other groups are pursuing
similar statehood bids, and it is unclear how the government plans to respond
to them.
Security in the ethnic patchwork
of the Lower Omo Valley is crucial to the government in light of plans to
install 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) of sugar plantations there along with
processing factories.
Troops and federal police are
among those participating in the disarmament operation, said Lore Kakuta, an
adviser to the chief administrator in Jinka.
Seized weapons include AK-47s
assault rifles bought from traders shifting arms from conflict-ridden South
Sudan.
Lore said disarmament was the
only option following unprovoked shootings by the Bodi targeting sugar plant
workers—allegations that the Bodi elders denied.
Lore said he could not comment on
reports of human rights abuses.
"We don't know what the
security forces are doing," he said. "Actually, that's not our
job."
A senior police official in
Jinka, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised
to discuss disarmament, disputed claims that Bodi people had been killed.
"The allegations that dozens
of Bodi have been killed is false," he said.
As of early October, the
disarmament of the Bodi was "90-percent finished", Lore said.
He added that the operation could
be expanded to include the Mursi, another agro-pastoralist community based in
the area.
A Mursi leader, who spoke on
condition of anonymity for safety reasons, said he was concerned that tactics
used against the Bodi would be repeated against his people.
"Now the Mursi are all
worried because maybe the police will come and kill us," he said.
Laetitia Bader of Human Rights
Watch said the Ethiopian government had a history of using violence and
intimidation to force vulnerable communities from their land.
"The federal government
should take measures to ensure that any disarmament efforts are not perceived
as a continuation of this heavy-handed approach," she said.
The authorities should also
consult with local communities and ensure that alleged abuses by its forces
"are immediately investigated," Bader said.
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