Ethiopian ethnic strife displaces one million

CLASHES between two of Ethiopia’s largest ethnic groups have forced about one million people to leave their homes, according to a United Nations report.

Fighting between the Oromo and Somali peoples along the shared border between their two states occurred sporadically through last year but the situation intensified in September, leaving hundreds of people dead by a government estimate and displacing scores of others.

Statistics from the UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) show that the conflict-related displacement is more widespread than previously known and one of the biggest seen by Ethiopia in recent years.

“Preliminary data from the latest round of the IOM Displacement Tracking Matrix conducted in November 2017 indicates that around one million persons have been displaced due to conflict along the Oromia-Somali regional border dating back to at least 2015,” a report by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said.

Last year alone, 700 000 people were displaced, with the IOM recording a significant spike in September.

An official with IOM’s office in the capital Addis Ababa declined to comment further on the data, cited in the Ocha report dated January 23.

Ethiopia is divided into ethnically demarcated federal states intended to give ethnic groups self-determination.

Quarrels between the two ethnic groups over access to land and resources have occurred for years along the border. – AFP