People from neighboring weredas of Agalo Meti and Yaso, primarily those representing non-Gumuz ethnic groups, have left their villages in fear of a similar scenario. Moussa said that the Benishangul-Gumuz region was part of Sudan in the past, and that there is an Egyptian-Sudanese escalation in light of Ethiopias intransigence in the GERD file. Join the Middle East's most notable experts for premium memos, trend reports, live video Q&A, and intimate in-person events, each detailing exclusive insights on business and geopolitical trends shaping the region. January 6, 2021, 4:10 AM On Dec. 22, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed visited the vast lowland territory of Metekel in Ethiopia's far western region of Benishangul-Gumuz, the so-called. Hence, the regional and the federal government should collaboratively work to investigate the situation and bring the perpetrators to account. 21 We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. It was fighting the government of Ethiopia for more than 17 years and committed hundreds of deaths and huge number of displacements in the region until peace deal . Join the Middle East's top business and policy professionals to access exclusive PRO insights today. On the other hand, Egypt considers the dam a major threat to its food security. High-ranking officials including Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed visited the area and discussed with representatives of the people in December 2020. [9], There are 2 refugee camps and 1 transit center, housing 36,440 refugees from Sudan and South Sudan, located in Benishangul-Gumuz region. On April 19, Ahmed said that Ethiopia will fill the GERD reservoir in July and August, despite objections from the two downstream countries, Egypt and Sudan. Besides the country is on the verge of being labeled as a pariah state, due to the conflict it has been ignited with western powers.It could be wise of the government, to step down from its rigid and jingoistic stance and try to accommodate to a certain degree, the interest of these three entities. [6] It had a projected population of 1,127,001 in 2018.[2]. Gumuz who have had to flee their villages due to targeted violence from communities who cast blame en masse are not getting needed support. The number of refugees arriving per month has been steadily reducing and in May only 159 new arrivals were registered in Kassala and Geraref and another 162 new . Are there fears of exclusion? UNHCR and partners move refugees to safety in the Benishangul Gumuz region in Ethiopia. [4] Background [ edit] Ethnic tensions [ edit] In a statement on 1 May, the government of Sudan claimed Benishangul-Gumuz as potentially its territorya provocation which the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs quickly condemned. Since then, death from violence been rampant in the whole region. [7], In the Metekel conflict, starting in 2019, Gumuz militia were allegedly involved in attacks against Amhara, Agaw, Oromo and Shinasha civilians.[8][9][10]. The officials believe that the Prosperity Party, to which they now belong, wants to eliminate the existing federal arrangement which guarantees self-rule to ethnic groups in the country. Both countries are opposed to the second filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam without negotiation. Rural population was 424,432, while the urban population was 36,027. Both Egypt and Sudan argue that the dam affects the flow of the Nile waters into their respective countries. An example is that settlers were attracted to a large irrigation project along the Kusa. As a result, the militias are strengthening their holdings and bargaining power. This is the viewpoint of the author. The regional government announced the signing of an agreement with the militia group on 18 May in Gilgel Beles town. Haavisto, who met Abiy during his visit to Addis Ababa this month as part of a fact-finding mission, said Ethiopias leadership had failed to provide a clear picture of the situation in Tigray including the widely documented involvement of forces from neighbouring Eritrea. The stories the refugees are bringing they are fleeing attacks from their opponents, Baloch said. Survivors of a massacre in December in the Benishangul-Gumuz region of Ethiopia. The CSA of Ethiopia estimated in 2005 that farmers in Benishangul-Gumuz had a total of 307,820 head of cattle (representing 0.79% of Ethiopia's total cattle), 65,800 sheep (0.38%), 244,570 goats (1.88%), 1,770 mules (1.2%), 37,520 asses (1.5%), 732,270 poultry of all species (2.37%), and 166,130 beehives (3.82%). By foregoing action to investigate crimes and ensure accountability, the signed agreement has also neglected the issue of justicea foundation of sustainable peace. The choice may be clear : it may be a bitter pill to swallow: do we want to see one Ethiopia, living in a relative peace ,by changing some agreement on the dam or sticking to our current position and face the eternal infighting and the disintegration of the country? Assosa Zone makes less than half of constituencies, which does not guarantee the establishment of a regional government. [citation needed]. Paulos Chanie, "Clientelism and Ethiopia's post-1991 decentralisation", Young, "Along Ethiopia's Western Frontier", p.334, Learn how and when to remove this template message, List of districts in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, "Sub-national HDI - Area Database - Global Data Lab", "Along Ethiopia's Western Frontier: Gambella and Benishangul in Transition", Census 2007 Tables: Benishangul-Gumuz Region, "Households by sources of drinking water, safe water sources", "2008. The murky politics behind the Metekel massacres, Benishangul conflict spurred by investment, land titling, rumors, Although the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE). The Amhara state wants the right to administer Metekkel because it wants to control the zones mineral deposits and arable lands. The OLF tried to incorporate the local population as "black Oromo", but met with little support. They also began to spread Islam among the Berta. Those who supported the agreement argued that negotiation and compromise are positive by their nature and should be appreciated. Meanwhile, the security response in Benishangul-Gumuz is not showing any capability of de-escalation. UN food agency, FAO, UN children's agency, UNICEF, and WFP, warn that greater humanitarian assistance and livelihoods support is needed immediately to save lives and prevent the collapse of livelihoods in the worst-affected locations across South Sudan. Instead, cross-border trade has increased, away from official pathways. Often the Gumuz' lands were allocated to transnational or domestic investors. Benishangul-Gumuz is also home to the government's prestige $5 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. They said that many of the victims were ethnic Amharas and Agaws, who are a minority in that region. In the absence of any official Egyptian comment on the developments in Benishangul-Gumuz and the Ethiopian accusations, Egyptian media outlets lashed out at Addis Ababa and backed the rebellion in the region. In 2021, Egypt and Sudan held joint military exercises to showcase security ties between the two countries in response to the ongoing conflict, the Associated Press reported. Amharas are the second most populous ethnic group in Ethiopia and they have been targeted repeatedly over the last year. Zanni, Leone. Thank you author and Ethiopia Insight. Benishangul-Gumuz Regional state, Western Ethiopia Research Article Volume 25 Issue 5 - September 2020 . The UNHCR said on Tuesday most of the 7,000 asylum seekers who fled Metekel have been living among Sudanese host communities. This has received mixed reactions among residents and watchers of the region. Descendants of Gumuz people taken as slaves to the area just south of Welkite were found to still be speaking the language in 1984 (Unseth 1985). Negotiations over an agreement between the three nations over the filling of the dam have stalled recently. The hazardous intersection of thrice-rescheduled elections, the issue of a second filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), and emerging conflicts with regional neighbors make the countrys future increasingly unpredictable. 28 Apr 2023 16:34:36 01 May 2023 17:03:29 In, James, Wendy. Regardless, some efforts were tried and they all failed. In December 2019, about 200 people were killed in the Metekel massacre. Violence in the Metekel Zone of the Benishangul-Gumuz region is separate from the deadly conflict in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region, which has sent more than 61,000 Ethiopians into Sudan's . . Since 2019, a cross-border collaboration programme has been implementing activities aimed to develop and enhance income-generating opportunities in the border area of Benishangul-Gumuz Region (Ethiopia) and Blue Nile State (Sudan), as a means of strengthening the population's resilience to instability and displacement and to improve overall living conditions. Photos from the aftermath of the attack, provided by local activists, showed bloodied bodies of women and children strewn on the ground, many with horrific wounds. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. The Gumuz practice shifting cultivation and their staple food is sorghum (Wallmark 1981). UNHCR is working to install basic. With mounting grievances against the regime, on 12 October 2020, the then chairman of the command post and deputy prime minister, Demeke Mekonnon, strangely and officially called people in Metekel to organize and arm themselves for defense. Haavisto repeated urgent calls from the international community for the Ethiopian government to grant full humanitarian access to Tigray, including areas beyond its control. 1234 Sudan Streat Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Sister exchange marriage. Currently, the regional government has some control in towns where administrative offices are located, but not much beyond that. While the world is focusing on the humanitarian crisis in northern Ethiopia caused by the war between the federal government and the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front, brutal repetitive attacks have taken place in the Metekkel zone of the Benishangul-Gumuz state in western Ethiopia. Dozens Die in Ethnic Massacre in Troubled Ethiopian Region, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/world/africa/ethiopia-ethnic-killings.html. "I believe there will come a point where some level of cooperation has to happen, because there is no other alternative," says Mahmoud. James, Wendy. Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesmanMansour Bouladresponded to the Ethiopian accusations on March 5, saying in apress statement, Sudan has no intention to invest in violence in its relations with other countries.. The Berta rebels instead allied with the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which overthrew the Mengistu regime in 1991 with the coalition EPRDF. It was the latest of several bloody outbursts over the past year in the western region of Benishangul-Gumuz, along the border with Sudan, where ethnic tensions are running high. Control of the area must be regained. The Amhara regional state and Amhara activists say that Metekkel was forcibly included under the Benishangul-Gumuz regional state after the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front took power in 1991. The command post also tried to deter the militias by declaring that it would make door-to-door hunts and take all necessary measures to apprehend militia members. Alessandro Triulzi: "Beni angul" in: Siegbert Uhlig (Hrsg.). More than 100,000 people have been displaced and 7,000 people have fled to Sudan. Consideration must be given to minority rights in order to reconcile important democratic principles with realities on the ground. Returning the displaced people into their villages will bring durable solutions but should be carefully handled. Time is not on Ethiopias side;it is on the side of Egypt and Sudan.I suspect that they may have hands in almost all conflict areas in the country. and militarization in Ethiopia's Benishangul-Gumuz Region led to the closure of the . The command post set a deadline for the militias to lay down their arms and surrender on 8 December 2020. At least 80 people were killed on Tuesday when unidentified gunmen stormed through a village in western Ethiopia in the latest of a series of ethnically driven massacres in the area, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and witnesses said on Wednesday. The ethnic groups include the Berta (25.41%), Amhara (21.69%), Gumuz (20.88%), Oromo (13.55%), Shinasha (7.73%) and Agaw-Awi (4.22%). The massacre in Benishangul-Gumuz region, along the border with Sudan, is the latest challenge to the regime of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who came to power in 2018 promising to unite Ethiopia but has struggled to contain a growing wave of ethnic violence. [10], Religion in Benishangul-Gumuz Region (2007)[11]. On Dec. 22, Mr. Abiy took time out from the campaign in Tigray to visit Benishangul-Gumuz and calm tensions in the area. Insecurity has prevented people from accessing their land for next years farming. Of course, fulfilling the preconditions requires coordinated and concerted action among humanitarian organizations and government entities. Unfortunately, in the last two years, the people in Metekel are enduring terrible shortages, and famine looms ahead due to a manmade crisis. . Benishangul Gumuz regional authorities have shown solidarity with refugees and identified a new temporary site with capacity to accommodate 20,000 people. Opposition political parties, like the Boro Democratic Party (BDP), rejected the 18 May agreement between the regional government and the leaders of the militias, which included power-sharing elements, as illegitimaterecalling that the only way to assume power should be through an election. [4] On 28 July 2009, the Regional Rural Roads Authority reported that over the previous year almost 600 of the 800 kilometers of local all-weather roads had been upgraded at a cost of 11.5 million birr, and an additional 447 kilometers of roads constructed. Muferiat Kemal, Ethiopias minister of peace, now says that the area has become a juncture for different interest groups.. Language links are at the top of the page across from the title. Slaves were also smuggled into Sudan across the border, which was established in 1902. There have been repeated episodes of intercommunal violence over the years. The Gumuz enjoyed administrative rights over Metekkel zone. It shares common borders with the State of Amhara in the east, the Sudan in the north-east, and the State of Oromia in the south. However, Ethiopia Insight will correct clear factual errors. Text Alerts - Be the first to get breaking news, exclusives, and PRO content. The Benishangul-Gumuz conflict was an armed conflict mostly in the Metekel Zone of the Benishangul-Gumuz Region in Ethiopia that started in 2019, until peace agreement signed between the rebel groups and the government of Ethiopia in October 2022. Despite this fact, the regional government immediately incorporated the strategy of civilian defense as part of conflict prevention and peace-building. It needs to change. Alessandro Triulzi, "Asosa", in: Siegbert Uhlig (Hrsg.). This page was last edited on 12 March 2023, at 23:23. [19] Until the Italian occupation of Ethiopia in the mid-1930s, the area supplied gold and slaves to the central government on a large scale. But over the next two years, experts say Egyptians could approach a state of "absolute" water scarcity. Some of ethnic groups native to the Benishangul-Gumuz region are: Five of these ethnic groups (Berta, Gumuz, Shinasha, Mao and Kwama) are granted the exclusive right to non-territorially functioning indigenous councils. Isnt your residence enough for identity and language service purposes? These traders married into the Berta upper class and thus gained political influence. Amnesty International reported in December that members of the ethnic Gumuz community the ethnic majority in the region attacked the homes of ethnic Amhara, Oromo and Shinasha. UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and partners are rushing life-saving aid to more than 20,000 refugees after they fled clashes in Ethiopia's Benishangul Gumuz region, bordering Sudan and South Sudan. [13] Besides slaves, gold was traditionally an important export of Benishangul. The risk of domestic violence is rising. [8] Values for other reported common indicators of the standard of living for Benishangul-Gumuz as of 2005[update] include the following: 19.1% of the inhabitants fall into the lowest wealth quintile; adult literacy for men is 47.4% and for women 23.2%; and the regional infant mortality rate is 84 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, which is greater than the nationwide average of 77; at least half of these deaths occurred in the infants first month of life. On 21 May, the National Election Board of Ethiopia confirmed that the election, which will take place on 21 June, will not take place in both Metekel and Kamashi zones, indicating that registration of voters did not occur due to security reasons. The access situation in Benishangul-Gumuz and parts of western Oromia has evolved since OCHA's map from late January - some improvements but still large areas "hard-to-reach" due to the security situation & related restrictions. The incumbent parliament has 99 seats. [1] Around 67,000 Gumuz also lived in Sudan. [22], Over 60% of this region is covered with forest, including bamboo, eucalyptus and rubber trees, incense and gum forests as well as the indigenous species. Separately, a European Union envoy warned the crisis in Tigray appears out of control, after visiting Ethiopia on behalf of the bloc. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) has been a part of a contentious decade-long dispute involving Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia. But it has lots of control over its internal problems through understanding and negotiations. Metekkel zone is one of three zones in the Benishangul-Gumuz state. Comparative Komuz grammar. Various trade routes met in Benishangul, and local gold and Ethiopian amole (salt bars) were exchanged for slaves, cattle, horses, iron, civet, musk, coffee, ivory and honey (which also came from the Oromo areas of Sibu and Leeqaa). The dam's impact on the water supply depends on how fast it's filled, according to Elgendy. It borders the Amhara and Oromia states, and Sudan.
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