benishangul gumuz sudan

Thousands have been killed and buried in mass graves, forced out of their homes, and properties looted and set ablaze. However, Ethiopia Insight will correct clear factual errors. The situation [in Metekel] has rapidly escalated in the past three months, Babar Baloch, UNHCR spokesman, told reporters in Geneva. By foregoing action to investigate crimes and ensure accountability, the signed agreement has also neglected the issue of justicea foundation of sustainable peace. 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. But the region is also home to minority Amharas, Oromos, Tigrayans and Agaws a source of escalating tension. UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said that spiralling costs of food and fuel were adding to the toxic mix. Sudans recent claim to Metekkel and particularly to Guba district has shocked the region. This claim gained momentum after Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed assumed power in April 2018. Over 100,000 people, mainly a large proportion of Amhara and Agaw people, have been displaced, the majority fleeing into Chagni, Ranch camp. Rashid Abdi on Twitter: "Until yesterday, 3,364 people from 62 Sorghum is used for cooking porridge (nga) and brewing beer (kea). . Immediately following the meeting, Ahmed issued a statement accusing foreign parties, in reference to Egypt, of causing chaos and instability in the country. Some observers are now saying that the atrocities committed in Metekkel are reaching holocaust proportions. 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. Villages have been razed to the ground. Egypt's population of 109 million is projected to grow significantly in decades, further straining the demand for water in the region. It is becoming unsafe to present identity cards that show the holders ethnicity, even at security checkpoints, as this may result in persecution. Their claim to the entire Metekkel zone has fuelled Gumuz militia attacks on non-Gumuz residents. The Gumuz see minorities as settlers, the rights group said. I think Marx has correctly identified the weakness of this article. James, Wendy. The hydro-electricity dam is now nearly complete and has begun filling to provide direly needed energy supply to Ethiopia. Its not hard to see how the situation could spiral, now that a violent and chaotic organization has been officially empowered through a package of incentives. It criticised Sudan's 1 May claim of sovereignty over Ethiopia's Benishangul-Gumuz region, where the dam is being constructed. 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? Since then, death from violence been rampant in the whole region. Even small-scale farm holders used to produce surpluses each year. All premium Industry Newsletters - Monitor the Middle East's most important industries. Eritrean writer and analyst Shifa al-Afari told Al-Monitor that the Benishangul-Gumuz region is currently seeing unprecedented tension that could be characterized as a state of war. According to him, this is the first time that this armed group, which took control of the county, and these weapons appear in the region. Egypts Al-Bawaba News, which is close to the state, reported in an April 23 article that a civil war is unfolding in Ethiopia due to the poor economic and social conditions in the country and its citizens being marginalized and isolated. Despite this fact, the regional government immediately incorporated the strategy of civilian defense as part of conflict prevention and peace-building. As a result, ethnic clashes that had already been growing for months have only gotten worse. The EU has joined the United States in demanding Eritrean troops withdraw. Aside to inserting new jaw dropping territorial claims including Benishangul-Gumuz region, Sudan also announced that it possesses documents confirming Ethiopia's recognition of the disputed . The Region hosts Ethiopia's Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) and has been the site of intense ethnic killings throughout the past year. All Gumuz are organized in clans. Main photo: PM Abiy Ahmed and Benishangul Gumuz regions president Ashadli Hassan at a public conference in Benishangul on peace and security situation in Metekel; 22 December 2020; Office of the Prime Minister. No one surrendered per the deadline. 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. info@moh.gov.et. The road has a 365-meter bridge that crosses the Abay. 1958. It is worrying indeed that the attention of national and international actors is turned almost exclusively to the war in Tigray. Some of the reasons for the attacks include neighbouring Amhara states claim to ownership of the Metekkel zone. Bambasi has a longitude and latitude of 945N 3444E with an elevation of 1668 meters above sea level. All the cooking and brewing is carried out in earthen pots, which are made by women. 1993. 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. Until yesterday, 3,364 people from 62 countries entered Ethiopia through Amhara region; 91 people from seven countries received through Kurmuk border crossing point, located in Benishangul-Gumuz region. Insecurity has prevented people from accessing their land for next years farming. 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. Several investors previously engaged in commercial farming where a variety of cash cropslike seasame and groundnutswere produced for export. Try it for free and cancel anytime. An example is that settlers were attracted to a large irrigation project along the Kusa. Finally, the regional government felt obliged to engage in a dialogue and negotiation with the Gumuz militia. Part of this work requires addressing the underlying factors that have fuelled the crisis. [14][20], Resistance to the Mengistu regime here came mainly from the Berta. Learn how your comment data is processed. Instead, cross-border trade has increased, away from official pathways. Benishangul -Gumuz. The area has been under the stewardship of the command post since September 2020. The rights group said the Gumuz set the homes on fire and stabbed and shot residents. 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. 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. 1994. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. 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. 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. 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. Ethnic targeting means minorities are not able to move freely in the region, nor in neighboring towns in the Amhara region. 28 Apr 2023 16:34:36 Concise, actionable scenarios and predictions from top regional experts. [4][5][6], Many changes occurred for the Gumuz people from the 1980s through to the 2010s. 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. 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%). 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 murky politics behind the Metekel massacres, Benishangul conflict spurred by investment, land titling, rumors, Although the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE). The dam is in Guba, one of the six districts in Metekkel. But hitherto the default position of both the Ethiopian state and opposition forces is violence. 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 command post set a deadline for the militias to lay down their arms and surrender on 8 December 2020. With national and international attention being pulled in many directionsmost notably towards war in Tigraythe problems of Benishangul-Gumuz are being eclipsed. Join over 50,000 readers who access our journalists dedicated newsletters, covering the top political, security, business and tech issues across the region each week.Delivered straight to your inbox. Communal trauma should not be underestimated. Concerning religion, 44.98% of the population were Muslim, 33.3% were Orthodox Christians, 13.53% were Protestant, and 7.09% practiced traditional beliefs. [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. Benishangul - ethiodemographyandhealth.org The Berta rebels instead allied with the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which overthrew the Mengistu regime in 1991 with the coalition EPRDF. Prioritize your target industries for weekly review: We also offer team plans. ", Ethiopia: Tackling environmental challenges with trees, "Benishangul Gumuz State Council appoints Ahmed Nasir as chief of state", Map of Benishangul-Gumuz Region at UN-OCHA, Map of Benishangul-Gumuz Region at DPPA of Ethiopia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Benishangul-Gumuz_Region&oldid=1151047051, This page was last edited on 21 April 2023, at 15:41. Those who supported the agreement argued that negotiation and compromise are positive by their nature and should be appreciated. [13], According to Negasso Gidada, Oromo penetration into the region began in the mid-18th century. 'No other alternative': Egypt worries as climate change, dam project The mob killing of a Gumuz man in Chagni, on 12 April, in the heart of the town in front of government authorities, is one of many signs of uncontained chaos. Getting people out of harms way and shielding them from serious protection risks also requires that their food needs are adequately addressed.. 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. Thank you author and Ethiopia Insight. Cereal crops are kept in granaries decorated with clay lumps imitating female breasts. [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. Benishangul-Gumuz is also home to the government's prestige $5 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. [citation needed]. "It will determine the impact of this disruption and the reduction to the volumes of water that goes to Egypt," he said. 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). It was not until the mid-20th century that Berta also settled in the lowlands, as slave hunts and armed conflict had ended. Full Release https://t.co/366QlfLowm@Refugees pic.twitter.com/3gdeWPfObw. UNHCR, partners rush to aid thousands of refugees in Benishangul Gumuz Returning the displaced people into their villages will bring durable solutions but should be carefully handled. Benishangul-Gumuz, for example, is home to five major ethnic groups, mostly from the Berta and Gumuz peoples. On 2 April, unnamed Gumuz militias claimed control of the administrative center of Sedal Wereda in Kamashi, very close to the construction site of the GERD. Twelve people were killed. With its vast and fertile land, Benishangul-Gumuz was once looked at as a crucial development corridor of the country. Built on the Blue Nile in Ethiopia's Benishangul-Gumuz region, just 30 km from the border with Sudan, the GERD is nearing completion, with the Ethiopian government announcing in March 2023 that 90 per cent of the dam was finalized. The sun rises behind the skyline of Egypt's capital Cairo and its Nile river island of Manial, Nov. 3, 2022.

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