The growth in refugee numbers has not been matched by a growth in resources, forcing WFP to make difficult decisions about who receives food assistance and who goes without. Ethiopia may not have control over the behavior of Egypt and Sudan. 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. No one surrendered per the deadline. Within the federal political arrangement, the Gumuz and the Shinasha control the six districts in the local administration structure. [5], Based on the 2007 Census conducted by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), the Benishangul-Gumuz Region has a total population of 784,345, consisting of 398,655 men and 385,690 women; urban inhabitants number 105,926 or 13.51% of the population. Many of those who are still in the region are not getting humanitarian aid. The Berta rebels instead allied with the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which overthrew the Mengistu regime in 1991 with the coalition EPRDF. Muferiat Kemal, Ethiopias minister of peace, now says that the area has become a juncture for different interest groups.. driven curation of top business stories accross 12 industries in the region. Receive daily updates directly in your inbox -, Eastern Africa: Millions displaced, amid growing hunger, unprecedented needs, FAO ramps up support to Sudan farmers as starvation threat grows in East Africa, Hunger still rising across East Africa, says new UN-backed report, Battle not yet over against locust invasions in East Africa and Yemen, Humanitarians urge action to avert famine in Somalia and South Sudan, Sub-Saharan Africa under threat from multiple humanitarian crises. In 2019, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said his country should be ready for a war with Egypt over the dispute. Previously one had to travel through Wollega and Gojjam in the neighboring regions of Oromia and Amhara, a distance of 1,250 kilometers, but it is now around 378 kilometers on the new road and bridge. This claim gained momentum after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed assumed power in April 2018. On Wednesday, Ethiopia said its military had killed three senior members of Tigrays former ruling party, the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front, including Seyoum Mesfin, a former foreign minister of Ethiopia. Rural population was 424,432, while the urban population was 36,027. They have ritual specialists called gafea. The Amhara claim should be handled through constitutional means; not by force. With widespread instability and difficulty reaching IDPs, victims of violence are out of arms reach from humanitarian assistancewhether from the regional government or from national and international non-governmental organizations. Sudans recent claim to Metekkel and particularly to Guba district has shocked the region. Yet the Ethiopian side rejected them all, he added. Some observers are now saying that the atrocities committed in Metekkel are reaching holocaust proportions. Our Vision is to see Healthy, Productive, and Prosperous Citizens of Ethiopia. [17], In the first quarter of the 19th century, Arab traders arrived from Sennar, which was occupied by Ottoman Egypt from 1821. There have been reports that the Ethiopian National Defense Forces took measure on up to 500 youths reportedly coming from Sudan with training and armament. The cocktail of factors driving the worsening trend in food security for the whole of eastern Africa, will leave 7.74 million people (62.7 per cent of the population) across the country, facing IPC Phase 3 levels, or worse, of acute food insecurity during the lean season between April and July, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis. The problem is not against the principles of a peace dialogue; rather, it is with the points missed and incorporated into the agreement. Alessandro Triulzi, "Asosa", in: Siegbert Uhlig (Hrsg.). As "Shanquella", they are already mentioned by Scottish explorer James Bruce in his Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, published in 1790. 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. Tsega Etefa does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. 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. The Region hosts Ethiopia's Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) and has been the site of intense ethnic killings throughout the past year. The government and its intelligence sector should reassess the routes and ways through which the militias are getting logistical support. Climate change, population growth and a regional fight for water resources are all contributing to the risk of water imbalance, experts say. This is because the Blue Nile, which originates from Ethiopia, supplies up to 80% of the Nile waters. 1985. 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. On April 22, the government-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commissionannounced that an armed group has taken full control of a county in Benishangul-Gumuz, killing and committing acts of violence against civilians, while security forces could not stop it. Unless the government and concerned parties give their attention to Benishangul-Gumuz, the country and the Horn of Africa as a whole is likely to soon feel the awful effects of an out-of-control conflict. Egypt's support for the rebels is very probable, as the Nile waters consist of a life or death matter for the Egyptians, and it is possible for Egypt to use all the cards to pressure Addis Ababa in its battle with Ethiopia.. 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 . Abiy, the winner of the Nobel 2019 Peace Prize, declared victory after federal forces entered the regional capital of Mekelle in late November, though the TPLF pledged to fight on and clashes have persisted in the region, hampering efforts to deliver humanitarian assistance. [18] In 1898, Asosa became the political and economic capital. The most affected states are Jonglei, Unity, Upper Nile, Lakes, Eastern Equatoria (Kapoeta East) and Warrap - more than 80 per cent of those food insecure. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed headed a meetingof Ethiopias National Security Council on April 24 to discuss the developments in Benishangul-Gumuz. Finally, Benishangul-Gumuz local government officials have owned up to orchestrating ethnic targeted killings in Metekkel as push back against Prime Minister Abiy Ahmeds new Prosperity Party, which replaced [13], According to Negasso Gidada, Oromo penetration into the region began in the mid-18th century. [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. Do their policies help peace or exacerbate conflict? Part of this work requires addressing the underlying factors that have fuelled the crisis. Note Etnografiche. The Amhara state wants the right to administer Metekkel because it wants to control the zones mineral deposits and arable lands. Weekly A.I. 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. The proposition of arming civilians to curb the violence divided opinions. Benishangul-Gumuz Region is one of the peripheral regions of Ethiopia bordering the Sudan. Originally, all Gumuz adorned their bodies with scarifications, but this custom is disappearing through government pressure and education. In the absence of effective responses and with such a weak negotiation, popular trust in regional authorities, the command post, and government institutions has been diminished. The attacks by armed militia, mainly from the Gumuz people against the Oromo, Amhara, Shinasha, and Awi residents of Metekkel, escalated in September 2020 and continued into March of 2021. Out of this, the Assosa Zone has 42 seats while Metekel and Kamashi zones have 33 and 20 seats respectively. The Gumuz have traditionally been grouped with other Nilotic peoples living along the Sudanese-Ethiopian border under the collective name Shanqella (Pankhurst 1977). [14], Little is known about its history before the 19th century. Blood was flooding from his neck, he said. . [7] According to the 1994 census 44.1% of inhabitants were Muslim, 34.8% Orthodox Christians, 13.1% followers of traditional religions and 5.8% Protestants. In the past decade the number of refugees in eastern Africa has nearly tripled, from1.82 million in 2012 to almost five million todayincluding 300,000 new refugees last year alone. Assosa Zone makes less than half of constituencies, which does not guarantee the establishment of a regional government. The Ethiopian Emperor Susenyos invaded the area in 1617/18, and it fell to the Funj Sultanate in 1685. The OLF tried to incorporate the local population as "black Oromo", but met with little support. What is the impact of the expected great economic benefits of the GERD on peoples behavior now? Ethiopia is now at a crossroads. Memos - premium analytical writing: actionable insights on markets and geopolitics. Al-Monitor.com is a trusted and award-winning independent source of Middle East news and analysis, founded in 2012. The EU has joined the United States in demanding Eritrean troops withdraw. Twelve people were killed. The Gumuz see minorities as settlers, the rights group said. Terms of the agreement that seemingly aimed at appeasing the militias included, among others, sharing power with militia members at the wereda, zonal and regional levels, creating job opportunities, offering access to financial support services, and giving urban and rural land to the members of the militias. The agricultural implements and cutting tools of Begemder and Semyen, Ethiopia. The rights group said the Gumuz set the homes on fire and stabbed and shot residents. Villages have been razed to the ground. Communities have been torn apart. Mr. Abiys decision to open up Ethiopian politics after he came to power in 2018, releasing political prisoners and allowing exiles to return, was widely acclaimed. [12], Like the Gambela Region, Benishangul-Gumuz is historically closely linked to neighbouring areas of Sudan, and to a lesser extent to the Ethiopian Highlands. This page was last edited on 12 March 2023, at 23:23. Fighting broke out on 18 January in the town of Tongo - reportedly between unidentified armed groups and federal forces - and the nearby camp . Regardless, some efforts were tried and they all failed. Metekkel residents, including the majority Gumuz community, are opposed to Amhara occupation. 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. More than 80 civilians were killed in an attack on Tuesday in the Benishangul-Gumuz region on Ethiopia's border with Sudan, the state-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said on Wednesday. Text Alerts - Be the first to get breaking news, exclusives, and PRO content. As the Berta People's Liberation Movement[21] or Benishangul People's Liberation Movement (BPLM), they - like the Gambella People's Liberation Movement of the Anuak in Gambella - were not accepted as full members of the EPRDF, but became regional partners of the new ruling coalition.[13]. The reconciliatory act has also aggrieved those who have suffered in the process of the conflict and who have been waiting for justice. As of 2007, there were around 159,418 Gumuz in Ethiopia. It even considers that it is the only country entitled to the Nile waters, which Egypt totally rejects. In, James, Wendy. The five largest ethnic groups in Benishangul-Gumuz were the Berta (27%), Gumuz (23%), Amhara (22%), Oromo (13%) and Shinasha (7%). Refugees and internally displaced people are at the centre of the food ration cuts, compounding a desperate situation for millions of people uprooted from their homes and often relying on aid to survive, said Clementine Nkweta-Salami, UNHCRs Regional Bureau Director for the East, Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes. Benishangul-Gumuz Regional state, Western Ethiopia Research Article Volume 25 Issue 5 - September 2020 . Are there fears of exclusion? It is the administrative center of Bambasi woreda . This is an escalation of the border dispute between Sudan and. Uzar, Henning. The name of the region comes from two peoples Berta (also called Benishangul) and Gumuz. To do so, its necessary to assess the success and failure of the previous strategies attempted by the command post in an effort to end fighting. We are seeing the beginning of one more potentially big refugee crisis in the world, Haavisto said. He was born in Metekel and worked in Benishangul-Gumuz for almost a decade. Separately, a European Union envoy warned the crisis in Tigray appears out of control, after visiting Ethiopia on behalf of the bloc. But a day later, armed men attacked a village, leaving at least 100 people dead, according to human rights groups. The UNHCR said on Tuesday most of the 7,000 asylum seekers who fled Metekel have been living among Sudanese host communities. The unfortunate reality is that eastern Africa is confronted with a year of unprecedented humanitarian needs, driven by severe climate shocks, ongoing conflict and instability, and surging food and fuel prices, said Michael Dunford, WFPs Regional Director for Eastern Africa. Box 61 Assosa, Ethiopia Telephone: +25125-7-754738 . The Gumuz were hunted as slaves in the era of the emperors. Dozens Die in Ethnic Massacre in Troubled Ethiopian Region, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/world/africa/ethiopia-ethnic-killings.html. And as a result, the Nile delta becomes the second most susceptible place on earth to climate change impacts in terms of sea level rise," says Karim Elgendy, an associate fellow at the Chatham Institute think tank. Of course, fulfilling the preconditions requires coordinated and concerted action among humanitarian organizations and government entities. It hosts more than 70,000 refugees from those countries, as well as more than a half-million Ethiopians internally displaced by. All rights reserved. Finally, the regional government felt obliged to engage in a dialogue and negotiation with the Gumuz militia. Although the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) confirmed that elections in Kamashi and Metekel zone will be conducted on 6 September, it is not clear if that is possible in light of continuing security crisis, mounting fear escalation in neighboring zones, and several people displaced. Violence by armed groups, and among ethnic-Gumuz, Agew, Amhara, and other communities in the Metekel zone of the Benishangul-Gumuz region, intensified in April, causing residents to flee.. "The sea is rising in the Mediterranean Sea, and the land is sinking in the Nile Delta. Thousands have been killed and buried in mass graves, forced out of their homes, and properties looted and set ablaze. Since its establishment under the 1995 constitution, questions about who has rights in the region have been contested. The region shares a border on the west with Sudan and is also the site of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD). Benishangul Gumuz has an estimated area of 51,000 square kilometers and is located in the north-western part of Ethiopia. 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. Similarly, Ethiopian asylum seekers have been crossing from the Benishangul-Gumuz region into Sudan's Blue Nile State. 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. [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 new influx of refugees into Sudan comes amid tensions between Addis Ababa and Khartoum over a border dispute and the deadlocked talks over a massive dam Ethiopia is building on the Blue Nile, the main tributary of the Nile River. But it also unleashed simmering ethnic tensions. Analysts say the campaign in Tigray has hampered Mr. Abiys ability to stem clashes like the recent one in Benishangul-Gumuz, because it has forced him to divert soldiers from across Ethiopia to Tigray. It is worrying indeed that the attention of national and international actors is turned almost exclusively to the war in Tigray. Those living near the Sudanese borderland converted to Islam and a few are Christians, but most Gumuz still maintain traditional religious practices. (Calverton: Macro International, 2008), http://catalog.ihsn.org/index.php/catalog/3583/download/50086, "Exhibiting Cultures of Contact: A Museum for Benishangul-Gumuz, Ethiopia", "Ethiopia and the Mahdiyya You Call Me a Chicken? Minorities also deserve protection from tyrannical forms of majority ruleincluding forms that do not consider equal protection of minorities as essential, or which go so far as to engage in the forced assimilation and active annihilation of minority groups. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, a massive hydropower plant on the River Nile that neighbors Sudan and Egypt, as the dam started to produce electricity, Feb. 19, 2022, in Benishangul-Gumuz, Ethiopia. In the chaos that followed, houses were torched and an old man was beheaded outside his house, Mr. Sebsibie said. I do not think the article addressed why the Gumuz rebel. According to the CSA, as of 2004[update], 27.23% of the total population had access to safe drinking water, of whom 22.35% were rural inhabitants and 58.53% were urban. The Gumuz also hunt wild animals, such as duikers and warthogs, and gather honey, wild fruits, roots and seeds. The remaining four seats belong to the Mao Komo Special Wereda. Read more: The town is named after the highest point in the Asosa Zone of the Benishangul-Gumuz Region, Mount Bambasi. The Gumuz are one of the indigenous groups in Metekkel. 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 . But hitherto the default position of both the Ethiopian state and opposition forces is violence. They encouraged attacks on non-Gumuz inhabitants who they felt would gain the upper hand in the administration of the Metekkel zone if the current federal arrangement were to be altered. ", The following day, Ethiopias Irrigation Minister Seleshi Bekele referred to plots against his country, due to the GERD. You have come to the situation which is militarily and human rights-wise, humanitarian-wise very out of control, Finlands Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto told journalists in Brussels, a day after briefing the blocs ministers on the crisis. But funding gaps has forced @WFP to make difficult decisions about who receives food and who goes without. The Gumuz practice shifting cultivation and their staple food is sorghum (Wallmark 1981). Over 10,000 militia members were recruited and received government-sponsored military training in all weredas of the Metekel Zone. Business and policy professionals use PRO to monitor the regional economy and improve their reports, memos and presentations. People are not receiving the humanitarian support they need and the attention they deserve. Indeed, on 10 June, there was a report of an attack by militias in Oda Bulidigilu Wereda which is located in Assosa Zone. Its main inhabitants are the Gumuz, Oromo, Awi, Amhara, and Shinasha communities. Finds attributing them to the Berta date from the 17th to 20th centuries and are mainly located on mountains, hills and in rocky areas that are easy to defend. It seems a terrible idea. [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. Egyptian Minister of Water Resources and Irrigation Mohamed Abdel Ati said in a statement April 18 that Cairo submitted15 different proposals for the filling and operation of the GERD over the past years, so as to meet the Ethiopian demands without causing any damage to Egypt and Sudan. [14], Under the regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam, who ruled Ethiopia from 1974, some 250,000 drought- and famine-stricken peasants from the highlandsmostly Amharas from Wollo provincewere relocated to Benishangul-Gumuz from 1979 and especially in the mid-1980s. 21 The dam, Africa's largest, began generating electricity in February 2022, after 11 years of construction work. Do any of these explain the rebellion? Unfortunately, in the last two years, the people in Metekel are enduring terrible shortages, and famine looms ahead due to a manmade crisis. There are a few questions that I wish the author addressed. Getting people out of harms way and shielding them from serious protection risks also requires that their food needs are adequately addressed.. In December 2019, about 200 people were killed in the Metekel massacre. All premium Industry Newsletters - Monitor the Middle East's most important industries. Zanni, Leone. Berta is spoken in the Sherkole woreda, Gumuz is spoken along the western boundary of Guba and Dangur woredas and in the Sirba Abbay woreda, and the Shinasha are a displaced people of Kaffa scattered across Welega and Gojjam. Ethnic targeting means minorities are not able to move freely in the region, nor in neighboring towns in the Amhara region. Cereal crops are kept in granaries decorated with clay lumps imitating female breasts. These interest groups include actors from the neighbouring Amhara state who claim ownership of the Metekkel zone. Already, reports indicate the presence of training operations for militias in the Ethiopia-Sudan border. Thisis the first time, however, that an armed group takes full control of several cities in the region, in light of the security forces failure to counter it. 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. Egypt has long been called the "gift of the Nile" as it has historically depended on the river for survival. Alessandro Triulzi, "Trade, Islam, and the Mahdia in Northwestern Wallagg, Ethiopia". . The area comprising Benishangul-Gumuz formally became part of Ethiopia under the terms of a Nile-focused 1902 treaty signed by Emperor Menelik II with Great Britain, which ruled Sudan. Nilotic ethnic group in Ethiopia and Sudan, https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican1275-84, "12 killed in latest attack in western Ethiopia", "Benishangul: At least 60 civilians mostly women, children killed", "More than 100 killed in latest ethnic massacre in Ethiopia", Field recordings from 1980 of traditional music, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gumuz_people&oldid=1144297259, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2008, "Related ethnic groups" needing confirmation, Articles using infobox ethnic group with image parameters, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2015, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0. I think Marx has correctly identified the weakness of this article. Insecurity has prevented people from accessing their land for next years farming. According to their traditions, in earlier times they inhabited the western parts of the province of Gojjam, but were progressively banished to the inhospitable area of the Blue Nile and its tributaries by their more powerful Afroasiatic-speaking neighbors, the Amhara and Agaw, who also enslaved them (Wolde-Selassie Abbute 2004). [15] Archaeologists have found sites that they date to the end of the 1st millennium BC or the beginning of the 1st millennium AD and assign them to the forerunners of today's Komuz-speaking ethnic groups. Their claim to the entire Metekkel zone has fuelled Gumuz militia attacks on non-Gumuz residents. A group of Gumuz men came to our village chanting leave our land, said Sebsibie Ibrahim, 36, a shop owner in Metekel district, speaking by phone. Trading in slaves in Bela-Shangul and Gumuz, Ethiopia: border enclaves in history, 1897-1938. Ethiopia's new party is welcome news, but faces big hurdles.
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