People Forcibly Relocated in Ethiopia Going Hungry

The Ethiopian government has forcibly relocated roughly 70,000 indigenous people from their land, moving them to new villages where they endure hunger and other hardships.
Under its “villagization plan,” the government says, relocations are voluntary, and people who relocate will have access to food, medical facilities, schools, and new livelihoods, as most of them survive by farming. However, those who resist being transferred have been threatened, assaulted, and arrested by state security. Furthermore, despite the promises, the new villages have little infrastructure and poor-quality soil, and people haven’t been given seeds and fertilizers to grow food. The broken promises have caused endemic hunger and even starvation.
The Ethiopian government has plans to forcibly relocate a total of 1.5 million indigenous people by 2013. These relocations are taking place in areas where significant land investment and commercial agriculture development is planned, although the government denies there is a connection.
Donor money from the United States, the United Kingdom, the World Bank, and the European Union pays the salaries of local government employees whose job it is to relocate people. This means that, indirectly, donor money is funding the relocation program’s abuses.