Drought and Corruption in the Horn of Africa, Specially in the Ogaden region.

On Tuesday March 22 the 18th World Water Day took place amidst negligible media coverage. Its theme was “Water cities: responding to the urban challenge”, a nod towards the pressures that rapid urbanisation and industrialisation have on water supplies in ballooning cities.

 Established by the United Nations (UN) in 1993, its purpose is to raise awareness of the importance of freshwater access and to advocate for more sustainable water management. With the world focused on unfolding events in Libya and Japan, and the UN and its agencies holding close to 100 such observance days in any given year - including World Television Day - the lack of media exposure can be forgiven. However, in the Horn of Africa another potential humanitarian crisis based on access to – and the politics of – water has been brewing, worsened by allegations of corruption at a major international organisation and - as revealed to Think Africa Press - bribery being intrinsic to obtaining necessary water supplies.

For several years the problem of water shortages and droughts has been a major issue in Ethiopia and Somalia. Irregular and infrequent rainfalls have long been a fear for the nomads who populate a large portion of the region: the whole basis for a nomadic lifestyle is in part rooted in the continuous search for water sources. As the countries of the Horn become more urbanised however, new concerns are developing which perfectly chime with this year’s World Water Day theme. Since December 2010, water prices have increased by an alarming 300%, plunging many into increasing debt as incomes are depleted through the need to obtain an essential commodity.

Horn hydropolitics

On the surface, this appears as nothing more than a climatic disaster compounded by external economic factors, in this case the huge global demand for food commodities. Certainly, the increase in water prices is largely down to man and nature squeezing supply, together with humanity’s insatiable appetite driving up demand. However, an ongoing conflict between rebel forces and the Ethiopian government’s military and Islamist militias in Somalia is exacerbating the drought. Furthermore, allegations of neglect and possible corruption at the World Food Programme (WFP) from last year continue to haunt the agency. 

The Somali Region of Ethiopia, often referred to as ‘Ogaden’ by its inhabitants, is reportedly suffering more than other areas of the country due to deliberate policies of the federal government in withholding water supplies for political reasons. The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) has long been at war with those in the country’s largest region, many of whom consider Ethiopian rule as a form of occupation. The WFP, together with the governments of Ethiopia and Somalia, remain largely responsible for managing and organising the distribution of food aid provided under various multilateral and bilateral provisions.

Where is the water?

Contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars are given out to logistics firms – many local – tasked with moving water around the country to those most in need. But the allocation of food and water aid has largely been a catastrophe. In September 2008, British TV news programme Channel 4 News exposed details of the usage of food aid as a weapon against rebels and other anti-government forces in Ethiopia. In Somalia during the same year, it was reported that only 12% of food destined for the people actually reached them. Last spring the WFP had to respond to claims by a UN Monitoring Group report that food and water aid was effectively being stolen by a cartel of businessmen, militias and even the WFP’s own personnel, leading to claims of corruption in the organisation. The WFP denied the claims, arguing they were based on "hearsay" and "commonly held perceptions". In the autumn of 2010, Human Rights Watch produced a detailed report outlining the extent to which aid meant to support basic services – such as water provision – was being used as a means of repression by Ethiopian government forces against rebels and subject to fraudulent behaviour.

As the UN again warns about a potential humanitarian crisis due to a major drought, Somalia and the Somali Region of Ethiopia are seen as at risk to ‘limited humanitarian access’. In Somalia alone, some 2.4 million people out of an estimated 7.2 million are in need of aid relief. At the same time, new assertions are being made against the WFP’s inadequacy in Somalia and the Ethiopian government’s deliberate policy of blocking water to the Somali Region. The accusations were aired by US international public broadcaster Voice of America, which broadcast an appeal by rebel group Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF). According to the news report, rebels claim that the government is purposely blocking aid as part of a tactic in the ongoing conflict in the region.

A price to pay

Speaking to Think Africa Press, a Somali NGO worker based in Ethiopia described the problems of obtaining water through official distribution organisations and the actions of military personnel in seeking bribery. "I had to send $500 to my family members so they can pay a private truck to deliver water to them from Dhagbur to Dig town," he said. "The area they (about 20 family members) live in is in a remote rural area and the droughts have gotten so extreme that private trucks have to be paid. To add insult to injury, the Ethiopian army intercepted the truck and we had to pay extra bribery money for them to release the truck. We are going to have to repeat this next week because the water is only going to last for 7 days."

It would be wrong to jump to conclusions based on the evidence thus far. The WFP itself has brushed aside negative reports of its work and continues to strongly deny assertions of corruption. But it appears that something is going critically wrong with the logistical mechanisms of allocating and managing water. The claims made by the UN Monitoring Group last year together with reports by certain media outlets recently paint a damaging portrait of the WFP: at the very least it is culpable of poor management and wastage of financial resource; at worst, it may be involved in some capacity in corruption of aid provision. If further evidence of the latter is forthcoming, it will only continue to undermine the entire aid industry at a time when the sector already feels under siege.

About the Author

Dominic Wall

source

http://thinkafricapress.com/article/drought-and-corruption-horn-africa

Past Muslim-Christian relations

Past Muslim-Christian relations

Historically, Ethiopia was a Christian empire involved in fierce expansionist conflicts with the Adal Emirate that was predominantly run by Somali religious elites with the help of Arabs and Ottoman Turkish Empire. With the appearance of Imam Ahmed Ibrahim Al-Ghazi, other wise known as Ahmed Guray or the left-handed in the early 16th century in Harar, the religious divide between Christian highlanders and the Muslim Somalis sharpened. The Portuguese and Ottoman empires’ support to Abyssinia and Ahmed Guray respectively reinforced the religious sentiment and hatred on both sides (Rediker, 2003). Almost four centuries latter Sayid Mohammed Abdullahi Hassan emerged with his Dervish movement, fighting in turn against Britain, Italy and Ethiopia for 21 years until he died in 1921. Sayid Mohammed had relentlessly called upon the Somali people to follow his jihad against Christian invaders (Latin, 2004). This revived existing religious tension and Somali anger at the continuous incursion and territorial claims of Ethiopian and Christian highland authority over the Ogaden.

The 1960s Nasrullah uprising was another manifestation of religious mobilization. It was established in 1963 in the Ogaden to struggle for the independence of the region. Garad Makhtal Garad Dahir was elected as its first chairman and highly respected local clerics such as Sheikh Ibrahim Hashi and Sheikh Ali Suufi were among its leaders (Ansari, 2008, Markakis, 1987). The Arabic term Nasru-laah itself has far-reaching meaning in Islamic terminology as it is another way of saying ‘sacrifice for the sake of Allah’. This connotation and the rhetoric used by the Nasrullah leaders are proof of the limited place of nationalism in the movement. In the course of these events, from Ahmed Guray to Nasrullah, perceived threats have been built up on both sides. The Somalis began to consider other Ethiopians as their primary enemy and vice versa. Since the wars that spurred this enmity were strongly driven by religious undertones, religion was prominent in how the two sides framed each other. Socioeconomic and political factors both aggravated or eased tensions between the two.

The 1969 coup d’état in Somalia and the 1974 revolution in Ethiopia both came with different discourses. The leaders of both revolutions, Siad Barre in Somalia and Mengistu Hailemariam in Ethiopia, committed themselves to secularism, namely scientific socialism. In Ethiopia it was at this point that Muslims felt that the regime was no longer a Christian one. The establishment of the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs in Ethiopia in 1976 was another step forward in Christian-Muslim relations (Ahmed, 2006). Nevertheless, this was not enough to extinguish the religious factor in the ongoing tensions between Somalis and the Ethiopian regime.

The Role of Religion in the Ogaden Conflict

The Role of Religion in the Ogaden Conflict                

By Mohammed Mealin Seid

Published on: Jan 26, 2009

Introduction

For a long time Ethiopia’s Somali Regional State or Ogaden has been a theatre of violent confrontation between the Somalis living there and the Ethiopian authorities. Through history such conflicts have been launched under different pretexts by different groups (Hagmann, 2005). Religion played a prominent role in the campaigns of Ahmed Guray in the early 16th century, the Dervish movement of Sayid Mohammed Abdullahi Hassan in the late 19th and early 20th century and the late Nasrullah movement of the 1960s (Abbink, 2003). Leaders on both the Ethiopian and Somali sides have often been religious men or they operated under the influence of a religious man. In contrast, however, from the 1970s up to today, secessionism, irredentism and nationalism have been the main parlance of the conflict.

Without denying the presence of al-shabaab and the United Western Somali Liberation Fronts (UWSLF) in the Somali Regional State, both of which are jihadists, the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) are the primary actors in the Ogaden conflict, which has been ongoing since 1994 (HRW, 2008). According to Articles 11 and 27 of the Ethiopian constitution, Ethiopia is a secular state that recognizes the equality of religions (FDRE, 1995). Similarly, ONLF claims to be a purely nationalistic organization struggling for the freedom of the people in the region. In spite of these disassociations from religion, one can, in reality, observe that religion—Christianity in the case of the Ethiopian army and Islam in the case of ONLF—has a significant role in the waging and continuation of the conflict. Religion is intertwined with historical, social and political factors that contribute to conflict dynamics in Ethiopia’s Somali inhabited lowlands.

This article does not argue that either the ONLF or Ethiopia are religious entities, nor does it contend that the conflict between the two is a religious one. In order to understand the role of religion in the Ogaden conflict and the factors that may maximize it the article focuses on two interrelated themes. The first one concerns the religious identities that the parties to the conflict claim and how these identities have influenced violent conflicts so far. The second theme focuses on the behaviour of these actors in the conflict and how they deliberately mobilized religious overtones, which partly transformed a political conflict into a religious one

The Democratic-Republic of Ogadenia Declaration of Independence

       For the righteousness of our intentions,
For our inalienable rights as human beings,

And by the Authority of the indigenous people of Ogadenia, We declare the right to be a free and Independent State. The long history of suffering at the hands of the destructive and oppressive Ethiopian Government shall be abolished and all political connection exonerated. 
The people, free and independent, shall institute a new Government to preserve and protect their rights to all acts entitled to Independent States and to effect their safety and happiness. The Democratic-Republic of Ogadenia shall establish peaceful relations with neighbor States and all nations.  From this day forth, the people of Ogadenia shall no longer:

• Be deprived of the right to trial by jury.
• Have our homes looted,
• Have our villages burnt.
• Have our livestock slaughtered.
• Our women raped.
• Remain isolated from the world.
• Will our boarders remain sealed from reporters, and economic trade.
• Have humanitarian organizations exiled.
• Suffer a manmade famine and a war against us.

No longer denied our inalienable rights as human beings and no longer suffer the longstanding, widespread reign of terror.

We, the Democratic-Republic of Ogadenia, therefore, declare that our Independence is recognized and that diplomatic relations be established with the United States of America as an ally against terror

Ogaden- If Bush Administration secured Peace in South Sudan why Obama Administration watches Ogaden Conflict?

If Bush Administration secured Peace in South Sudan why Obama Administration watches Ogaden Conflict?

Ogaden was the epicenter of The Conflict between the Long rebellions freedom Fighters and occupied forces from the Ethiopian Kingdoms, the region was closed from the world, there had never been a free media base that tells the true stories of the ground, starting from the 19TH century the region was not politically and military stable.

There had been more than 10 time on military tension between the world powers over Ethiopia and Ogaden issue was the biggest issue on the matter, Ethiopia was playing its cards to gain the support of Ogaden conflict, Somali and Ethiopia fought over the Ogaden war in 1977, Soviet and its alliance supported Ethiopia Regime, the west always speaks on the lips claiming to maintain Human right and democracy but the people of the Ogaden region was at risk, killed, raped and massacred, the UN had never spoke on the matter of Ogaden abuses openly and investigate the accusations.

Mostly of the Ogaden people dismisses the United Nations and its endless ignoring the Ogaden Issue, people sees the UN as vanguard that keeps the interest of the specific nations and people, some of them believe that Ogaden is Gaza of Africa.

To come to the point Ogaden People are peace loving people but lack the justice, and order that need a long term solution, The West must give a chance to make a durable peace in Ogaden and end the long African conflict that lefts millions of Life.

Now Ogaden is between three line, death ,prison and Refugee, most youth are living in the refugee of the east Africa, Somalia, Kenya and Djibouti, some are killed and some are in prisons, while other are living on intimidations and fear. All these are caused the long term Conflict between ONLF, Ogaden National Liberation Front and Ethiopian Troops.

Ethiopian Troops trained financed and armed militia Named Liyuu Police, these militias have same similarities of the Janjiweed Malitia in Sudan, Durfur, they kill civilian, raped women and hangs men, the militia are founded in the 2005.
Human right Organizations and Aid called on the West particularly US and UK to investigate the matter of Ogaden region and the human right abuses that happened between 2006-2009, The UN must take step and must not to blind eye to the crisis looming on Ogaden.

To come to the Obama Administration, Obama has promised shifting the US policy towards Africa, in his Ghana speech, Obama lauded peace, democracy and justice in Africa, if that speech was true , Ogaden Region is first place need that solution.

The last US Administration solved the South Sudan Conflict, In 2001, pushed by an advocacy coalition led by U.S. evangelical and African-American churches, former President George W. Bush made bringing peace to the region a foreign policy priority. His administration helped secure a 2005 peace agreement, which established a power-sharing government that was supposed to lead Sudan from dictatorship to democracy.

Now Obama must lead Ethiopia into true democracy and bring both Ethiopia and ONLF leaders on the Table and they must come on each to compromise so as to reach the durable solution in Ogaden and whole in Ethiopia, if that happen, there would not be more worry about In Somalia extremist groups to come in Ethiopia, and risk will minimize. Ogaden people must asked what is their will, If they chose to be Ethiopians we must see, If they chose to be Free nation, with huge Gas and Oil producer, USA must open bases on Ogaden and find both the interest of the people in the region and its interest and national security. Ogaden and Ethiopia can be two peace nations sharing economic interest.

To be honest, the current peace claimed The Ethiopia and some Faction claiming ONLF is an endless road, the group is non-existence on the ground, they had no any relationship with ONLF army In Ogaden, the Group leader and some youth that he collected from the west are seen in Ogaden as hopeless and helpless in Ogaden. Salahadin Macow had been ousted ONLF central committee after when he was charged with corruption. ONLF military has only one Admstration led by Admiral Mohamed Omar Osman, Mahamed Ismail, Abdi Qadir Adani Hirmoge,Dhiirane, Abdi Rahman Mahdi and its central committee consist of 54 Members

ONE STAR.

one Star!
Oh, Putland, Oh, Putland, bemused
I gape at the stars above you.
How dark it looks to see Somali’s lone star
disappearing from your sight!
I never thought I’d see the day,

“Farrole” poisoned the spirit of Mandeeq!
I never thought he’d crumble me into the ground to strip my Somalinis!
I never thought he’d send our brothers to harm’s way.
Now they are gone, I close my eyes and think of them, and how.

There was a time when I had doubt,

If he suffers from amnesia knowing I am his Somali brethren.
And what hurts the most is I now know how Tigray is his new kin and King.

I am left with emptiness but not defeat,
because, I am Somalia’s pride! Striving for the best!
We fought for the freedom you cherish in Putland.

A truth, Mr. Farrole will never know to admit.
And I will bear my guilt alone not knowing where
he’s left Somalia’s hero Sayid, and heroine Hawa Tako,

Perhaps they too had perished in his mist.
If he must know, we’ve been tested in ovens of hell
Dignified and certified our will equaling to gold and diamond!

Freedom from Woyane ascendancy is a must for us,
We pray as well your kinship with Tigray to

forever flourish until death does you a part.

Our enemies had purified enough of there hatred,
Ogaden star will shine,it was said that
Every dog has a day
written By ogadenian peotry
Sadiq Abdirahman

Silent Cry’ Victims of Ogaden Genocide

British University students have uncovered the horrors of Ogaden, Africa, almost by accident. “Silent Cry” the grassroots documentary production by students Abdallah Abdi, Ahmed Abdalle, and Abdi-Shukri Omar shows a harrowing portrayal of the victims from the Ogaden region.


It was screened on the 6th of February at Melbourne University to a capacity crowd, making it the 26th city to view this first-hand account.

In 2007, the Ethiopian Army launched a military crackdown in Ogaden under its chairman Mohamed O. Osman. The main rebel group is the Ogaden National Liberation Front, which is fighting against the Ethiopian government.

Somalis who inhabit Ogaden have since claimed that the Ethiopian military kill civilians, commit crimes against the nomads in the region and destroy the livelihood of many of the ethnic Somalis. Ogaden is situated in the Somali region of Ethiopia and is currently subject to a total media blackout.

The students were seeking adventure in Africa when they met a taxi driver who described his horrific story in the hands of Ethiopian soldiers, where his son was burnt and killed and wife kidnapped and never seen again.

“It really shocked us…I was on my last year at university and now a whole lot of the team of ‘Silent Cry’ have completely given up everything in life because we believe this is a crime against humanity and we want to present this message to anyone and everyone in the world.” Said Abdi Shukri, the narrator and interviewer in the documentary.

Determined to find out the truth, the students ventured into the IFO refugee camp in Northern Kenya, where many have taken refuge from the conflict, although conditions are very basic and little support is given to these victims.

What follows in the documentary is traumatic, gritty and the style of production shows images repeated and choppy to give viewers the full effect of what the conditions the people in this refugee camp have had to endure.

A group of women, all of who were subjected to rape and torture by the regime, were willing to give their accounts, although it was clear how much pain this was causing.

One woman was repeatedly raped by nine soldiers and is now disabled because of this despicable act. Another woman opened up eventually to describe how she was forced to hang her own child. The students were so affected by this particular story, they were originally planning to name the film “Hang your Child” but thought this may be too strong for audiences so instead decided to name it “Silent Cry.”

The child victims were a focal point throughout the documentary. These parts of the film were possibly the most distressing. Tiny legs burnt, little faces scarred from fire and countless orphans wandering around without any supervision were all vividly captured in the film. It was too much to handle at some points with the images firmly planted long after the film finished.

The amateur film-makers have taken this documentary to over 26 cities in europe and the U.S in the past few months and are continuing their travels. Originally, Channel 4 in the UK offered them 13,000 pounds (Roughly 20,000 Australian dollars) for their footage, but they turned it down, fearful that it would be edited incorrectly. They instead edited the film themselves.

When asked how they fund their cause, it truly shows the grassroots nature of the project . They have raised money from student donations, selling t-shirts, badges and wristbands and are driven by a passion and extreme determination to expose the genocide that is happening in Ogaden