Interview: The makings of a Gedeo crisis

Interview: The makings of a Gedeo crisis

The Gedeo displacement crisis in Guji zones in the south of Ethiopia has been largely overlooked and neglected, even though it has been going on for a year. At the peak of the crisis last July over 900,000 ethnic Gedeos originating from East and West Guji zones of Oromiya have taken refuge in makeshift settlements, set up all over Gedeo Zone (Dilla, Yirgacheffe, Gedeb, etc) and areas of Guji Zone with little access to aid, facing food shortages and acute malnutrition, according to aid workers. It is said things were particularly harsh for around 100,000 Gedeos who were stranded in the Guji zone, under the protection of the military. Kalkidan Negash Obse, a former president of Dilla University and Assistant Professor of Law and Human Rights at Addis Ababa University, has been outspoken about the plight of Gedeo people long before it was in the news. Speaking recently in a conference held in Toronto, Kalkidan, himself an ethnic Gedeo, says this was clearly ethnic cleansing, triggered by elite-level factors, radical politicians and activists who were stoking ethnic rivalries. He also said the event has illustrated how the so-called new reformist leadership has failed its own people by failing to deal with the calamity in a timely and efficient way and by deliberately keeping the information about the catastrophe from the public. The Toronto-based Megenagna Radio’s Elias Aweke talked to him after the conference.

How has such large-scale displacement been kept from the public?

Some of us have been speaking about it, posting through Facebooks but no one was listening because the country was in collective euphoria and unrestrained optimism, talk of political and economic reforms. The narrative was about the reform and changes happening. The media was not ready for such a negative story.

Some say such inter-community clashes between Guji and Gedeo has been common in the past. But it is being used now to smear Abiy Ahmed’s administration. Is that the case?

There were some minor incidences in the past, but cannot be compared with the current crisis. The ongoing crisis is unique in many ways with almost the whole population of Gedeo in Guji Zones displaced, in such a massive, appalling way, and with such widespread human rights violations. We are talking about a serious and massive ethnic cleansing campaign which has been compared with Darfur and the Rohingya crisis.

Why was it hard to bring the catastrophe to the limelight?

Unfortunately, the voices of minority groups are not heard as strongly as they should. Despite talk of creating a multi-ethnic society that gives political capacity for minority groups in which their interests adequately represented, the plight of those groups fewer in number or lacking in political representation are still unheeded, neither their demands met. They continue to be victims of oppressive practices. The case of Gedeo is not different from this. What makes the situation difficult is the humanitarian crisis.  The Gedeo people who live in the Guji zones have gone through suffering and pain with a degree of cruelty that is difficult to imagine. The stories are inconceivable. The lack of humanity displayed incomprehensible.

Children in Gotiti settlements. Photo BBC Amharic

There has been close ties between the two ethnic groups. Yes?

The two ethnic groups lived in peace for a long time, enjoyed close ties, held a belief in common descent from an ancestor. They spoke each other’s languages, followed the same traditions, including Gada system. Scholars who studied them have wondered about the nature of their cooperation. For example, the Guji have been portrayed as a warrior group who have been engaged in war with other tribes, such as the Borena, Sidama, and Arsi but not with Gedeo. As a matter of fact, the two cooperated during battles. Hence, conflict is a recent phenomenon. Not to say, there were not low-scale conflicts but never at such scale. The two ethnic groups performed different and complementary economic activities, the Gedeo as settled cultivators and producers of coffee and enset and the Guji engaged in animal husbandry, enabling them to build a kind of symbiotic relationship. There has been a steady increase of Gedeo population in Guji Zones, resulting from demographic factors that can be attributed to higher birth rate and population movements related to scarcity of land in Gedeo Zone. Increasing population and economic productivity of the Gedeo population, who are mostly coffee farmers, led to intensified competition between the two ethnic groups. That was something resented by certain Guji administrators who say the number of Gedeos swelling and they were on the way to outnumber and outsmart them. The Gedeo were often made a scapegoat of every ill, which resulted in a convulsive surge of hatreds against Gedeo. This was not necessarily the sentiment of the whole Guji population but those of small-bands of opportunistic political leaders and agitators. They went around simplifying fluid realities on the ground and creating ‘us versus them’ category to manipulate and consolidate their hold over power. Ethnic identity has become a political tool and ethnic card played aggressively by politicians. A programme of ethnic cleansing has been undertaken in various places. Even those who were deeply assimilated into the Guji society were not spared.

Are there evidences for that?

 There is no gainsaying the reality. Humanitarian organizations have recorded the displacement and the displaced people relate how hundreds, if not thousands, have lost their lives in a brutal way. The details of the incidents are vivid. Hundreds of village were burned to the ground. Men and women had been beheaded, people thrown in rivers and toilets, some burned while alive. Men’s genitals had been cut off. Females of all ages were raped. Every indication shows this was a systematic ethnic cleansing on Gedeo people. But its seeds had been planted years before, the ground had been well prepared by so-called scholars and agitators who have been staking the fire of intolerance towards the ethnic group.


Pregnant women and mothers are present in the camp. Photo BBC Amharic.

Had there been attempts to meet government officials to raise the plight?

Representatives of community have appealed for justice to the president of the Oromia region, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia repeatedly. But their demands had been turned down. Many letters were sent but recurrently fell on deaf ears. The government showed it was unconcerned about the plight of the Gedeo. Rather, there was an official cover-up, denials and distortions, and further human rights violations. What worried them was not the predicament but that it was exposed. For instance, in June 2018, while the violence was escalating, members of the Gedeo community called the Voice of America to inform the radio station about 75 their people killed in Guji zone. However, a few days later, VOA Amharic, based on reporting from Afaan Oromoo section, would report that 30 people were killed, 21 Guji and 9 Gedeo, citing officials from the Guji. The irony was not only the Gedeo people lost their lives but they were also denied the truth to their loss of life.

What should be the way ahead?

What should be noted is this is not just a humanitarian crisis, but a political one at its core. The remedy shall involve political and institutional solutions. The slow initial response and the government’s s decision to restrict the activities of humanitarian organizations was no simple mistake. Aid destined to the displaced was mismanaged and appropriated by organized forces. Even some government officials, including the Minister of Peace, Muferihat Kamil, acknowledged this. There are officials of the regional government who were complicit in the act. This was not hidden from the government. Conscious for the image, the government was insisting on their return to their former villages, saying it was safe to return. But the displaced who returned to their communities have left time and again because of insecurity and additional targeted attacks. Several armed militias, groups roam around in the area. There is illicit arms trade that enabled armed groups to create the sorts of crises that saw the Gedeo subjected to untold misery. I believe that reconciliation is possible. But, before this can be achieved, the perpetrators and those responsible must be held responsible. The government should mobilize resources for longer-term recovery and reconstruction in addition to the much-needed emergency aid. In his recent trip to Gedeo, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed responded to concerns about the restriction of the activities of humanitarian organizations telling the displaced people that “all these people want is to take your pictures and beg for money.” The statement confirms his government’s complicity in the atrocities being inflicted on Gedeo people.

(In a press conference he gave on March 28, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed strongly defended his administration’s response to Gedeo-Guji IDP crisis. He said a committee led by Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen, was established some months back. After having visited the area and survey by the committee, 95 percent of the displaced were made to return, he explained. The rest were made to stay in the camps because the conditions for their return have not been met yet. Abiy admitted that the response wasn’t perfect, the coordination was inadequate, and that the pace of reconstruction should have been faster. In addressing issues of accountability and justice, more than 300 alleged perpetuators and suspects were held accountable, he said.)

Main image: Kalkidan Negash Obse addressing Ethiopians in Toronto about the plight of Gedeo.

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2 thoughts on “Interview: The makings of a Gedeo crisis

  1. We are evaluating the possibilities of abolishing the Ethnic Federalism system and creating one huge district in Ethiopia. So far the research shows that It can be done, all that is needed to make Ethiopia a one state country is mutual respect. If we take the example of California, USA where close to.45 million people with diverse ethnicities and cultures living under one administration then we can also tear down the regional boarders and make Ethiopia a one big state only country.We do not need fourteen different districts when Ethiopia can be all under one district or under one state with just municipality governments below this one state government.

  2. This Gedeo-Guji crisis was / is the epitome of the large scale ethnic-cum-electoral gerrymandering an ethnic cleansing per se perpetrated by EPRDFite honchos. I hinted on this hideous trend to homogenize ethnic enclaves / regional states by massive displacement of people on my time line.

    The whole story began in earnest after #OromoProtest continued unabated and is to turn the table. When internal schisms were fast unraveling the cohesion of the governing party its avant-garde arch ideologues lunged for the ultimatum the last “nuclear option“ they set in store. All party cadres or lackeys in its hierarchy were in cahoots too in pulling off this feat of carving homogeneous ethnic enclaves.

    The Somali regional state under its notorious ex-president Abdi Illey “expelled“ quite a million Oromos internally and some into Kenya. It was a game changer for Ethiopia as we know it then has fallen apart!

    Then the Gedeo-Guji crisis came immediate to PM Abiy`s rise to premiership. One can see it as a crescendo of the nefarious act and those displaced subsequently in Benshangul , Burayu and other environs as its denouement!

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