Tragedy in the Omo Valley

Dam and sugar plantation projects have visited hunger, disease and misery upon Indigenous communities in Ethiopia’s Lower Omo Valley, as documented in a report by the Oakland Institute extracted below.

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THE Omo Valley, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is a popular tourist attraction. People from around the world travel to experience what the government of Ethiopia advertises as ‘one of the only places in the world where you can still find Indigenous people that haven’t been influenced by the outside world ... and who all staunchly keep to their unique traditional costumes, customs, and beliefs’. The extremely dire conditions faced by the Kwegu, Bodi and Mursi, however, remain overlooked.

Despite the urgent need for humanitarian assistance, the government and relief agencies have so far failed to respond to calls for help. World Vision distributed bags of wheat in November 2022, but this aid is far from sufficient to cover the need and it is unclear if it will continue.

Tackling the crisis in the Lower Omo Valley requires immediate and sustained humanitarian assistance, along with decisive government action to address its root causes – largely tied to the devastating impact of the so-called ‘development’ projects in the region.

Growing hunger: The Gibe III Dam and sugar plantations

The Lower Omo Valley is home to numerous Indigenous groups – predominantly pastoralists, hunter-gatherers and flood-retreat cultivators. Their identity, culture and livelihoods are intimately linked with the plains and snaking Omo River – relying significantly on its annual flood for the cultivation of crops, fishing and grazing of cattle.

In 2006, the government, then led by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), embarked on the construction of the Gibe III Dam to increase Ethiopia’s energy potential and establish large-scale irrigated plantations, with the goal to ‘transform’ the region. In 2011, it initiated the Kuraz Sugar Development Project (KSDP), comprised of a massive sugarcane plantation and five associated factories, located downstream from the dam.

Since inception, the Gibe III Dam and KSDP have severely deteriorated the livelihoods of Indigenous communities in the region – wiping out livestock, driving mass displacement and decimating local communities’ ability to make a living – leading to widespread hunger. For years, the Oakland Institute has raised the alarm about this impact but no action appears to have been taken to mitigate the consequences of projects that were supposed to bring development.

One of the most severe consequences of the Gibe III Dam – completed in 2015 – is the loss of the annual flood of the Omo River. For centuries, this flood has been at the core of food production for Indigenous communities and a key component of their economies. Since the dam started generating power in 2015, the annual flood has not occurred. Local communities are increasingly dependent on the fickle rains for bush cultivation and the sale of their cattle to buy grain. Locals have been forced to resettle and abandon practices like herding cattle that were essential to their livelihoods.

Devastated by ‘development’ projects

Seven years after the completion of the dam and 11 years since the first plantations were established, the harsh reality of hunger and disease on the ground confirms their disastrous long-term impacts on the region, threatening the survival of Indigenous tribes.

One of the groups hit the hardest, the Kwegu – people who have occupied this land since time immemorial – are a 2,000-strong band of Omo-flood cultivators, hunters and gatherers, and goat herders. Their territory is adjacent to both the Omo River and a sugarcane plantation. Prior to the dam, they lived at the Omo year-round. The Kwegu used to fish, eat wild game and a large variety of wild plants, and collect wild honey.

The Kwegu’s territory intermixes with the Bodi and Mursi, two other Indigenous groups who are also suffering greatly from the projects. The Bodi number around 10,000. They are cattle herders and have traditionally cultivated along the Omo River after the seasonal floods, while also practising rain-fed cultivation in the bush. The Bodi’s neighbours to the south are the Mursi, who also number around 10,000. The Mursi have very similar livelihoods. They too are cattle herders and practice both flood-retreat cultivation on the Omo and rain-fed cultivation in the plains.

Unable to practise flood-retreat cultivation, the Kwegu, Bodi and Mursi communities have lost their lands, livelihoods and food sources to the Gibe III Dam and irrigation schemes. They are chronically hungry.

Losing to disease and malnutrition

The situation has severely deteriorated in recent years. Twenty-two Mursi villagers died of malnutrition near the Mago checkpoint in October 2022. Locals estimate that every family in the area has lost two or three children to malnutrition and leishmania. Some fear that half of the Mursi population could die from malnutrition in the absence of urgent action. In October 2022, eight people were brought from the checkpoint to the Hana Health Centre, where all but one subsequently died, including a pregnant woman. The lack of transportation to get people in critical condition from the bush to Jinka, a town with medical facilities, is a pressing issue. The lack of basic health services locally is dire given so many people are in critical need of care and the fact that many villagers do not want to leave, because they fear dying during the travel or at the hospital, far away from their community.

Currently, the Kwegu and Mursi are suffering from an outbreak of chickenpox. Additionally, they are also experiencing a measles outbreak, which started in 2021. The Mursi are most impacted – villagers report that 40 Mursi children have died from the disease. Mursi children are also struck by malaria and leishmania. In addition to this, cholera has appeared in the area since 2020.

Contaminated water brings cholera and dangerous chemicals

Research shows that cholera has spread through the local communities since January 2020, with the earliest outbreaks reported in a Kwegu village which obtains its water from a tributary of the Omo River. A worker camp and a military detachment situated upstream of the river had been releasing raw sewage directly into the tributary, leading to 200 people falling sick and 23 people dying the following week. Having gone four years without a harvest from the riverbanks, local communities were experiencing grave hunger; when cholera arrived, their immune systems were already weakened, leaving them vulnerable to the disease. Cholera has continued to spread, causing the death of over 15 Kwegu, 20 Bodi and 12 Mursi in the past two years.

Water contamination tied to the sugar plantations and factories’ toxic chemical use is another concern, which the villagers allege is poisoning their drinking water. The threat to drinking water has been confirmed by several studies conducted in the region which show that sugarcane cultivation is heavily dependent on chemical inputs like pesticides and fertilisers, with sugarcane processing plants producing large amounts of runoff that can contain heavy metals and cleaning agents. This raises grave concerns over the Omo River’s water quality, compounded by the fact that there is no water testing or treatment available. Community members report that they are forced to drink from chemical-filled irrigation canals, which poses significant long-term health risks, including cancers, neurodegenerative disorders and reproductive harms. Most tribe members, however, are unaware of the dangers posed by the dirty runoff water or chemicals, and thus continue to be exposed to these health risks. Not only the Bodi and Kwegu, but also other communities living downstream from the river, are impacted by this contamination.

Failure of resettlement sites

‘Development’ projects have forced local tribe members to resettle and abandon livestock herding. The Mursi and the Bodi were promised irrigated land in resettlement sites where they would be able to grow crops and which would have schools, access to healthcare, grinding mills, food aid, safe water and access to electricity. Little to none of this ever materialised, causing communities to abandon the resettlement sites. In Hana, these sites are virtually empty with no government services.

In a case reported to the researchers for this report, when a sugar factory encroaching on Bodi and Kwegu territory was constructed, the owners of the Ethiopian Sugar Corporation prepared a piece of land for the two groups, with irrigation canals to allow for the cultivation of corn. After community members had cultivated the land for two years, the factory owners abruptly took it back and gave them a small parcel of dry, rocky land – far away from water sources, rendering cultivation impossible. The Bodi and Kwegu have attempted to cultivate crops near the sugarcane plantation, but these efforts were thwarted by employees of the sugar factory, who have cleared and destroyed these crops. Bodi villagers have reportedly needed to direct water from the canal into their fields at night, because workers of the Ethiopian Sugar Corporation have banned them from using it during daytime.

Menial jobs for the locals

Locals have been left with no choice but to work for the sugar factories. Despite the promise that KSDP would bring jobs, the few made available to the Kwegu, Mursi and Bodi are low-paid, menial and seasonal – primarily consisting of hunting buffalo that eat the sugarcane for the men and, for the women, removing crushed sugarcane refuse.

These jobs pay between 400 and 1,500 birr ($7-$28) per month. This exceedingly low sum is further devalued amidst the prevalent inflation rate in Ethiopia – at over 30%. A quintal of maize that would feed a family for a month is now sold for more than 3,000 birr ($56). In order to survive, the Bodi and Kwegu sell charcoal to people in nearby towns or plantation workers, buying bread for their children on a day-to-day basis with the money they earn.

Loss of cattle, wild game and fish

With the Indigenous losing most of their land to the dam and sugar plantations, over half of their cattle have perished in recent years. And the crisis continues today with cattle dying of malnutrition and various illnesses such as tuberculosis, anthrax and pasteurellosis. The Mursi and Bodi are not provided medicine for their cattle and feel that this is an intentional attempt to get rid of the cattle.

The wild game that the Indigenous relied on for subsistence have also disappeared – having fled or died due to the loss of habitat to the sugar plantations. Moreover, having been disarmed by the military, locals lack the arms to hunt.

Additionally, it has become increasingly difficult to catch fish. Research shows that this may be due to the loss of the annual Omo floods, which generated fish migration and replenished the river-fed lakes. Significant reductions in the productivity of flood-plain fisheries are often detected following the construction of dams in numerous river basins across the world. The reduction in the number of fish may also partly be due to overfishing, as more people turn to it given the loss of other livelihoods. In addition, men from urban areas are coming in and fishing commercially with nets.

These different factors have reportedly forced villagers to eat bush leaves in order to survive, while others go hungry because they cannot find anything to subside on at all.

Forgotten in a time of civil war

In April 2018, there was hope that change in the Omo Valley might be possible as Abiy Ahmed became Prime Minister with a reform agenda emphasising human rights and medemer – an Amharic word for coming together and synergy – across the country.

After taking office, Abiy set out to break the power and influence of the TPLF, which had dominated national politics for almost three decades. This fuelled tensions, leading the TPLF to retreat to its stronghold in the northern region of Tigray. In September 2020, tension culminated in the Tigrayans holding local elections in defiance of federal orders, following the postponing of long-promised national elections. Two months later, violence broke out, gradually escalating into a brutal civil war known as the Tigray War. For the next two years, the conflict left an unknown number dead, forced over two million people from their homes, and drove parts of Ethiopia into famine. In November 2022, the Ethiopian government and the TPLF leadership signed an agreement to stop fighting.

With international coverage focused on the war in the north, conflicts in the Lower Omo Valley have gone almost entirely unreported. In 2019, military forces carried out indiscriminate killings in the region, leaving at least 38 people dead – including women, children and the elderly – gang-raping women and forcing community members to go into hiding. Among the Mursi people, similar devastation occurred, with reports of houses set on fire, beatings and torture. Following this campaign of violence, the Bodi and most of the Mursi population were disarmed. Given all of the neighbouring groups are still armed, this leaves the Bodi and Mursi more vulnerable to cattle raids as well as general abuses by local administrators and the military.

Call for action

The November 2022 agreement by Ethiopia’s warring sides to cease hostilities potentially paves the way for peace. It is urgent for the government to now turn its attention to the Omo Valley and address the harms suffered by Indigenous communities.

Despite the severity of the situation, the regional and national governments have failed to take action. More than a decade after their inception, it is clear that the ‘development’ projects in the Omo Valley have massively failed the Indigenous communities. Humanitarian aid is urgently needed now to stop widespread hunger and provide adequate medical aid. In the immediate term, the Ethiopian government must take steps to address this devastating situation and end the suffering, by ensuring food, water and medical assistance are provided. The government must also address past abuses and take all appropriate measures to mitigate the impacts of the projects, including returning arable land to communities. Only this will usher in a new era – one that benefits and includes Indigenous communities, traditions, cultures and livelihoods.

Indigenous tribes of the Omo Valley must be respected, allowed to live in dignity, and supported to have their land and livelihoods restored.                               

The above is extracted from the Oakland Institute report ‘Dam and Sugar Plantations Yield Starvation and Death in Ethiopia’s Lower Omo Valley’ (https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/dam-sugar-plantations-starvation-death-ethiopia-lower-omo) published in February 2023. The Oakland Institute is an independent policy think-tank bringing fresh ideas and bold action to the most pressing social, economic and environmental issues.

*Third World Resurgence No. 355, 2023, pp 3-5