Photo retrieved from: www.guardian.co.uk
“Thousands of semi-nomadic tribespeople are being forcibly moved from their traditional lands in southern Ethiopia to make way for European and Indian sugar cane and biofuel plantations, according to testimonies collected by Survival International researchers.
Agricultural developments along the Omo river valley have accompanied the building of the 243-metre-high Gibe III dam, expected to be Ethiopia’s largest investment project and Africa‘s largest hydropower plant. But allegations of human rights abuses have marred both the dam’s construction and the creation of a 140-mile-long reservoir intended to provide water for irrigation of industrial-scale plantations.
“Clearance of people and bush has started in earnest in the Omo Valley and violence against tribal people by the military, and tribal resistance, is increasing”, says a Survival researcher who has just returned to London from the region.”
“The tribes have been told the plan is to resettle them, and that this will happen by the end of 2012. These people are among the most self-sufficient in a country where famine and hunger are prevalent.”
Read more: Guardian
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