20/05/02 Zoom sur la population Afar en Ethiopie (Article de l’IRIN (ONU), en anglais, transmis par un lecteur)

Asayita,5/17/2002
(IRIN) – Inhabiting some of the harshest terrain in the
world, the people of Afar are famed for their resilience,
ferocity and
pride. Yet, in the searing heat of northeastern Ethiopia,
they are now
earning another reputation – that of being the most neglected
and
marginalised ethnic group in the country.

The nomadic
Afar have fewer hospitals, schools or social services than
almost any other region in Ethiopia. They generally die younger
and are
less likely to be able to escape their cycle of deprivation.

The Sultan
of Afar, Ali Mireh Hanfareh, recognises the severe problems
facing the state. He told IRIN that education was the key
to solving many
of them. "Education is the most important thing for my
people," he said
from his home in Asayita, the capital of Afar State. "You
cannot do
anything without education."

But the
sultan, who is the region’s traditional ruler, said the entire
state had just three secondary schools – one of which he had
built
himself. Only one percent of Afars ever finished primary school.
Moreover,
he pointed out, the miniscule educational component available
was also
serving to drive away the people who benefited from it, lured
by higher
wages and better lifestyles in other parts of the country
or abroad.

As pastoralists,
the Afar move over vast distances with their livestock,
irrespective of borders. The lowland region, which covers
270,000 sq km,
occupies one-fifth of Ethiopia, has a population of about
3.4 million,
according to the last census in 1994.

Only about
five percent of the Afar population have access to proper
health care. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO),
two
hospitals serve the entire population, which, it says, is
grossly
inadequate.

"Basic
infrastructure such as electric power supply, transport and
communications, are grossly deficient, which have posed serious
roadblocks
on the service delivery," a 2001 WHO report said. In
almost every area of
health, the Afar were well below the national average, the
report added.
No health outreach service has been offered for three years
because of
financial constraints and a lack of transport. Immunisations
against
disease were almost zero, it added.

In the
sweltering capital of the region, Asayita, where temperatures
often
reach 45 degrees centigrade, electricity is only available
– if at all –
to half the town at any time. A 45-km dirt track links Asayita,
which
overlooks the Awash river, to the tarmacked Addis to Djibouti
highway. A
new capital, Semara, is being built on the highway, although
no-one has
moved there yet.

The lack
of basic services, like roads and electricity, pose real problems
to NGOs trying to establish themselves in Afar. Few of them
operate in the
state. Only 13 NGOs are currently running programmes there.
Six years ago,
it was just two, but the World Bank and IMF are now targeting
pastoralist
projects, whose funds attract new development groups to the
region.

A five-year
World Bank-funded programme worth US $250 million known as
the
Ethiopian Social and Rural Development Fund (ESRDF) targeted
rural areas,
but often did not reach pastoralists. Now the Bank is launching
a scheme
to channel funds direct to the pastoralists. The scheme, the
Pastoral
Community Development Project, is far more "geographically
specific" in
its focus than the ESRDF from which it evolved.

Esayas
Girma, head of Community Aid Abroad (CAA) – who started work
in
Afar six years ago – said historically the group had been
outsiders.
"There is no question over whether the Afar are marginalised,"
he said.
"They lack basic rights. All the political decisions
traditionally have
been taken elsewhere. They should have basic health and education
– these
are primary rights which can’t be denied."

CAA is
also seeking to empower women through literacy programmes
and
advocacy work. Esayas said the marginalisation of the Afar
was in part
historical – the divide between the lowlands of Ethiopia and
the
highlands, where the majority of the population live.

The Pastoralist
Communications Initiative (PCI), a new organisation in
Ethiopia, agreed with Esayas’s views. Daoud Tari of the PCI
said
pastoralists across the Horn of Africa had been marginalised.
"The
production system they pursue is very different from the agrarian
agriculture production system. The state in Ethiopia was formed
around
agrarian agriculture that looked at pastoralism as a backward
mode of
production, not worth investing in."

After
Afar became a regional state in 1995 – it is supposed to control
its
own budgets and priorities – the problems were compounded.
"That
[transformation] has [engendered] a lot of problems, because
there is no
capacity. The regional state has a strong lack of capacity,"
Daoud said.

Many development
agencies complain they are concerned over security as
skirmishes can break out between rival clans. Almost every
man wears the
fearsome looking three-foot-long Jile sword. Most men carry
semiautomatic
rifles. Parts of the state are often out of bounds to the
United Nations
because of strict rules governing staff security. The sultan
argues that
the Afar are peaceful – but much of his time is spent settling
disputes
between rival clan leaders, who regularly call at his home.

But NGOs
in Afar say the security issue is influenced by the regional
state’s political boundaries, Djibouti and Eritrea being places
where many
Afar, who do not recognise borders, also live. Daoud said
that groups of
Afar spread over three countries meant that they could often
be used as
political pawns by rival governments.

CAA believes
that the clan system – often blamed for insecurity – can
actually facilitate operations. "It is an advantage for
NGOs. If you know
exactly the architectural structure of the society, it is
an opportunity
for NGOs to work, not a source of frustration," Esayas
said. "Like the
land management system is done, which is based on a clan system.
But when
people who go there see plain lands [they] think nobody’s
there. But
somebody is managing that one. So if you understand the clan
system, who o
perates [it] and who are really the power – I can’t see it
as a problem."

On average,
the region receives 300 mm of rainfall a year – an amount
that
can fall in a single month in the country’s capital, Addis
Ababa. But
according to Farm Africa, which focuses on pastoralist development,
lack
of water is not the problem – it is poor management. Dr Seme
Debela, head
of Farm Africa, said gradual encroachment by large-scale commercial
crop
cultivation using the Awash river for massive irrigation was
preventing
the Afar from reaching the river bank to graze their animals.

"It
is not really the water – the water is there," he said.
"It is the
land that is creating the problem, because these people migrate,
and these
commercial activities are in the way of the migratory route.
It also means
fertile land where crops are now grown are off-limits to the
nomads, who
are on an endless search of fine grazing lands. That has created
conflict,
and this is the issue of management – how to share resources,"
he said.

"The
pastoral community was not well understood in the past. There
were
efforts by the previous governments, beginning with the Haile
Selassie
period up till now, but the kind of development programmes
planned and
implemented were not really appropriate to the pastoral community.
As a
result they could not really benefit from this kind of development,"
Seme
noted.

There
had been a number of livestock programme activities, but the
approach had been more suited to the highland environment
– highland
agriculture rather than pastoralism, Seme said. "The
kind of development
plans initiated were not participatory, did not really appreciate
the
distinction between highland settled agriculture and pastoral
activities,
even agro-pastoral activities. So there was this dichotomy.
Now we are
learning: the government has even set up a pastoral extension
system."

Farm Africa
also trains the Afar in animal health, equipping them with
medicines to tackle livestock diseases. Seme said many areas
needed to be
targeted and improved, particularly the ability of the Afar
to run
programmes once NGOs pulled out. "The social infrastructure
is very weak,"
he said. "Unfortunately they don’t have the resources
both human,
financial and others. So there is a big need for the Afar
region, like for
most pastoral regions."

He noted
that non-Afars held the available jobs in the region. "Who
runs
the commercial farms, who are the truck drivers, who are the
accountants,
storekeepers, secretaries? They are not Afar, and this human
resource base
is very weak now."