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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Clashes threaten Ethiopia’s delicate ethnic balance

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Paul Schemm and Tom Gardner - She was not one of them, but Saada Youssef had lived alongside the Somali people of eastern Ethiopia for years. Then came the day local officials told her to leave or die. ugg ansley sale “Even on the truck, people were throwing stones at us,” Saada said, recalling her escape in a vehicle sent to rescue people of Oromo ethnicity living in the Somali region where tit-for-tat ethnic violence killed hundreds last month. chaussure nike air Saada found refuge in a collection of abandoned buildings in Adama, a city far from her home in the eastern town of Wachale, one of several areas in Ethiopia’s Oromia and Somali regions that have seen fighting between two of the country’s largest ethnic groups. The bloody clashes threaten to upset the delicate ethnic balance of Africa’s second most populous country, where the all-powerful ruling party last year declared a state of emergency to end months of sometimes deadly anti-government protests spearheaded by the Oromos. The unrest raises questions about the future of Ethiopia’s “ethnic federalism” system of governance. What triggered September’s violence is unclear, but its results are not. lunette de soleil ray ban homme pas cher A government spokesman said hundreds of people have been killed in recent weeks and a local official in the eastern city of Harar said more than 67,800 Oromos alone have fled, not to mention the Somalis who have moved in the opposite direction. uggs for women Survivors of the ethnic fighting blamed the government for not doing more to stop the bloodshed. They are worried it might lead to a permanent rift between the country’s Somali and Oromo communities. adidas yeezy boost “This could be ethnic cleansing,” said Molu Wario, an Oromo who fled fighting in Moyale in the south along the border of the Somali and Oromia regions, after a land dispute turned ugly. nike air max thea soldes Ayub Abdullah, an Oromo day labourer who lived for 15 years in the Somali regional capital Jigjiga, said he was confronted by a mob at work, who demanded to know his ethnicity. air jordan retro Then, four Liyu police attacked him and throttled him with a rope. Afterwards Ayub fled to a camp for displaced Oromos on the outskirts of Harar, a walled city near the border between the two regions. nike kyrie “I work with lots of different people, but it was only Oromos who were being targeted,” he said. The military now guards major roads along the flashpoint border areas, gradually restoring calm to restive areas such as Jigjiga and Moyale.


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