The pastoralists of Ethiopia’s Somali region make a living raising cattle, camels and goats in an arid and drought-prone land. They are forced to move constantly in search of pasture and watering holes for their animals. Credit: William Lloyd-George/IPS

By William Lloyd-George
SOMALI REGION, Ethiopia, Jun 30 2014 (IPS)

The pastoralists of Somali region make their living raising cattle, camels and goats. In the arid and drought-prone region, they are forced to move from place to place in search of pasture and watering holes for their animals.

As a result of the communities’ lifestyle, formal education has never been an option and the youth are normally educated by the elders.

While mobile services have existed in several forms for decades in Somali region, in recent years the regional government together with various NGOs have led an initiative to substantially increase these services across the region. In order to improve the lives of pastoralists communities, mobile health, education and veterinarian services have been created to travel to where these people live.

Camels wait for treatment from the Liyu police veterinarian teams outside Bulali town in Ethiopia’s Somali region. Credit: William Lloyd-George/IPS

By William Lloyd-George
SOMALI REGION, Ethiopia, Jun 30 2014 (IPS)

When he was a young boy, 20-year-old Abdi, who comes from a small pastoralist community in Ethiopia’s Somali Region, “knew about school, reading and writing but did not expect this is something we would ever get close to.”

Abdi couldn’t attend school because he comes from a nomadic people, who are constantly moving from place to place.

His small pastoralist community has temporarily set up camp here, outside the town of Shilabo close to the Ethiopian-Somali border. It lies 425 kilometres away from the bustling activity of Jijga, the capital of Ethiopia’s Somali Region.

As the sun rises over the arid landscape, women in brightly-coloured traditional clothes light up the small villages, men in Somali sarongs pull lines of camels up the road, and the smell of stoves being heated for early breakfast blows through the hot air.

A few years before, the journey to get here would have been a bumpy and dusty one and would have taken days but the new road makes it easier to reach this once cut-off destination. This will be complimented soon by the opening of the Kebri Dahar international airport, built by the regional government.

An elder leads us through the community’s settlement. Each family has a few small domes constructed with twigs and cloth secured with small fences made out of bush branches. It is a world away from the fast-developing cities of Somali Region, where investment is being channeled into shopping centres, hotels, large abattoirs and new housing.

On the edge of the settlement, one of the structures is seemingly packed full of people. Inside, children crouch on the floor, clutching notepads and pencils. Standing over them is their teacher, Fassah, a wiry man who points to Somali letters on the blackboard.

Fassah is one of the many teachers working with pastoralist communities across the Ethiopia’s Somali Region who travels with the pastoralists. He points to Somali letters on a blackboard. Credit: William Lloyd-George/IPS

“Without these classes the community would find it difficult to learn how to read and write. It opens doors for them,” Fassah tells IPS during breaktime. He is one of the many teachers working with pastoralist communities across the region who travels whenever and wherever the pastoralists go.

It’s only now as a 20-year-old after he’s learned his letters, that Abdi can even entertain the thought of furthering his education.

“Now we can even go to Jijiga university,” he tells IPS as he stands outside the structure that serves as a school.

“Our parents never dreamed of such education, now we can learn so much and help our community,” Abdi says.

Abdi, 20 (right), standing outside his class with a friend. His pastoralist community, situated here outside the town of Shilabo in Somali Region, Ethiopia, has a teacher who now travels with them. Credit: William Lloyd-George/IPS

Somali National Regional State, or Zone 5, accounts for more than 20 percent of Ethiopia and shares a porous 1,600 km border with war-ravaged Somalia. The population of the region is believed to be more than five million, with pastoralists counting for more than 80 percent.

Owing to the climate and vegetation variations, mobility is a necessary response to survive. Many experts see pastoralism as a sophisticated land use system and although pastoralists only account for 15 percent of the entire Ethiopian population of about 92 million, it is believed they contribute 40 percent of the nation’s agricultural gross domestic product.

The pastoralists of Somali region make their living raising cattle, camels and goats. In the arid and drought-prone region, they are forced to move from place to place in search of pasture and watering holes for their animals.

As a result of the communities’ lifestyle, formal education has never been an option and the youth are usually educated by the elders.

While mobile services have existed in several forms for decades in Somali region, in recent years the regional government together with various NGOs have led an initiative to substantially increase these services across the region. In order to improve the lives of pastoralists communities, mobile health, education and veterinarian services have been created to travel to where these communities live.

The government mobile education system, though, allows pastoralist children to be educated on the move and once they complete a certain level they can join the national high schools and later universities.

As the class finishes, the kids, accustomed to the heat, play games in the burning sun and the elder leads us over to an acacia tree where hundreds of goats enjoy the shade. Mahmud, part of the government’s mobile veterinarian team set up to treat the pastoralists’ animals, sprays a blue disinfectant on a goat’s wound.

“If we did not have the mobile veterinarian teams, we would have to take our animals far to get to the cities and depending on the illness they might die before we get there,” Jamal, the owner of these goats, tells IPS. “Our animals are significantly more healthy as a result of the mobile veterinarian teams, they help us a lot.”

The vets bring with them vaccinations and medicine for skin disease and other infections. In recent years, increasing sedenterisation and market orientation is encouraging more rearing of cattle and sheep by the pastoralists, making the services of veterinarians a necessity.

In a nearby community, outside one of the shelters, a small queue has formed. Inside a female health worker sits on a mat, medicine sprawled out in front of her as she attends to a patient.

A mobile doctor writes up her notes. She is part of a Mobile Health and Nutrition Team, one of 51 across the Ethiopia’s Somali Region, funded and supported by United Nations Children’s Fund and other NGOs. Credit: William Lloyd-George/IPS

The health worker is part of a Mobile Health and Nutrition Team, one of 51 across the region, put in place by the government but funded and supported by United Nations Children’s Fund and other NGOs, to provide a health and nutrition safety net to the most vulnerable communities in inaccessible areas. It is part of an effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and a drive to get basic services to even the most cut-off communities.

The team provides both preventative and curative services, with a focus on young children and pregnant women. The care provided includes vaccinations, water purification chemicals, monitoring and treatment of child malnutrition, and providing iron supplements, tetanus shots and other neonatal support for pregnant and nursing mothers. They are also responsible for referring emergency cases to the local hospitals.

On the way back to Jijiga, we pass through Gudhis town, previously a hostpot for fighting between government forces and the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), rebels fighting for secession from Ethiopia. Residents in the town say it is now peaceful and the regional government believe their Liyu Police force has managed to substantially weaken the ONLF since its creation in 2008.

While the Liyu Police were primarily created to fight the ONLF, regional government officials say they are now being transformed into a force for development and put to work on projects around the region.

“Development is key to peace in the region, without it there will be no security,” the Somali Regional President Abdi Mohamoud Omar tells IPS. “This is why we want the Liyu to be a force for development, build wells, roads and help the people of this region. When we have development and security, the anti-peace elements fade away.”

The Liyu Police veterinarian team treating camels in Ethiopia’s Somali region. Credit: William Lloyd-George/IPS

Efforts to transform the force are seemingly underway. On the way out of the town we come across Liyu police who are clearing the way for a road to link the town with the highway. In our last stop we visit Bulali, a town very well-known in Somali culture for its historic festivals. As the sun sets over the picturesque little oasis-like settlement, hundreds of camels stand around in what is a mighty river in wet season.

We pass a water well, which the Liyu Police helped build and which will now bring water to dozens of communities.

“My father was killed by a lion while trying to find water,” Abdulahi, a camel herder, tells IPS as he stands over the well. “It is emotional to now have water in this area, knowing what our people have gone through to get water in the past.”

Members of the Liyu police mobile veterinarian team, former active combatants, now trained up to move around treating livestock, stand in white lab coats, sinking huge needles of vaccination into moaning camels. They give the medicine to treat skin disease and the local camel herders say it has dramatically increased the camels’ health.

“We were always wandering, trying to find water and food, sometimes we did not have the capacity to see a vet, let alone a doctor for ourselves,” Abdulahi says as he gets ready to prepare his camels for nightfall. “These mobile teams really changed our lives, giving us access to services we never thought we would have.”

A five-star hotel being built on Jijiga's main road in Somali Region. Credit: William Lloyd-George/IPS

By William Lloyd-George
JIJIGA, Ethiopia, Apr 3 2013 (IPS)

For over two decades Somali Region, in eastern Ethiopia, has been devastated by a grueling insurgency. Trapped in a time warp, it has been forgotten and underdeveloped. But in the last few years, thanks to the increased security here, a five-star hotel, eco-tourism ventures and even a large abattoir are being built by the former diaspora community.

This comes after the regional government encouraged people to return and support development in this Horn of Africa nation through global campaigns conducted in countries like the United States and the United Kingdom.

“For years, I just thought it was too dangerous to return,” Zara Wale Abas, who had settled in Denmark, told IPS. “When the region’s vice president came and showed us the development going on, I was really surprised and wanted to return and check it out for myself.”

For many who remember Jijiga as a forgotten, war-torn region, photos of new hospitals, roads, schools and bridges – though still very few in number – have inspired many to take what they felt to be a brave step: to return home to see the development for themselves. In the last two years, over 300 people have returned, part- and full-time, to work on various projects.

In 2011, Abas came to Jijiga and ended up building an eco-tourist hotel, which she hopes will attract the diaspora and tourists. “It might still be just a few people who have returned but considering the insecurity the region endured for so long, this is a huge step for our people.”

According to Axmed Maxamad Shugri, head of the government’s Regional Diaspora Office, which assists those returning, the main reason for so many staying away from the region for so long is the misinformation spread by the Ogaden National Liberation Front or ONLF.

“The ONLF tell the diaspora that Somali Region is a war zone,” he told IPS. “For years no one even thought about coming back, so it really is significant that people are starting to. It is just the beginning and we need everyone to come back to help the region develop.”

“For a while I did not think I could even come here myself, but ... I discovered there was a chance to do something and I have been very encouraged by our progress so far,” surgeon Dr. Mahad Musse, who grew up and studied in Finland.
The ONLF is largely made up of Ogaden people, a Somali clan that has fought for an independent state here since the 1991 fall from power of Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam. The ONLF is now in peace talks with the Ethiopian government. But after it took up arms, what followed was nearly two decades of a bloody insurgency, with civilians often being targeted by both sides.

As a result, various aid agencies were restricted from working in the region, where the residents endured several devastating droughts. Many of the five million people who inhabit the region live simple pastoralist lives, and the lack of peace and water severely disrupted their fragile existence.

But a regional police force or state militia, the Liyu Police, which is made up of soldiers from the local communities, has managed to severely decrease the ONLF’s strength in recent years, according to the regional government. In the face of criticism by activists for human rights abuses, Liyu leaders told IPS they are making efforts to reform the force.

Ahmed Haybe Mohamoud, a businessman who lived in Frankfurt, Germany for the last 30 years and moved back recently, told IPS: “For years the insurgency was too strong (for me) to even consider coming back and living in peace. But now the major cities are protected and I feel it is the right time to invest in the region and help my people.”

Mohamoud has pooled together investment from his extended family, who have sought asylum across the world, and is building Jijiga’s first five-star hotel.

The same sentiment was shared by another recently-returned investor, Jamal Arab. He and his family sought asylum in the state of Minnesota in the United States, where he worked in a manufacturing company until recently.

In Fafan, a village 30 kilometres away from Jijiga, Arab and four other investors are building a huge abattoir.

“This will bring a decent income to many people in the region,” Arab told IPS. “As well as increasing the amount of meat being bought and exported from the region, we will also be hiring a huge number of staff.”

Arab added that nothing would have been possible without the new road which runs through the village, connecting it with Jijiga and major cities close to Ethiopia’s capital.

Through the centre of Jijiga runs a wide modern highway, fitted with tall efficient streetlights. Building projects are dotted all the way along it, through the length of the city. Shopping centres, five-star hotels, and new restaurants are being planned, with construction having started on many.

The city now has a new hospital and a university, and regional government officials say it is a new beginning for the region.

“Now you can see we are booming, the region is safe, it is time for everyone to come back, invest in their home, and help their people,” Abdullahi Yusuf Werar, the region’s vice president, told IPS.

It’s not only investors who are moving back. A number of people have returned to begin setting up NGOs, or to bring other skills to the region, which they acquired abroad.

Dr. Mahad Musse, who grew up and studied surgery in Finland, has come back to set up a surgery clinic in Jijiga.

“This, and one other hospital in Addis, will be the only two places offering this quality of surgery,” Musse told IPS. “For a while I did not think I could even come here myself, but after speaking to many people who had recently come back, I discovered there was a chance to do something and I have been very encouraged by our progress so far.”

The region, however, remains impoverished. Drought is expected again this year, which would have lasting effects for people in the region. While most of the recent developments might benefit those in the cities, the vast majority of the five million people who populate the region still live far from water sources, and have no electricity.

The rebels may have been pushed out of the cities and now operate in smaller numbers, but they remain present throughout the region. The momentum of development will depend on the dedication of the regional government, the skills of the diaspora, and the willingness of the ONLF and the Ethiopian government to find peace before the region can really develop in a way that will benefit all.

One local professor, who did not wish to be named, told IPS: “There is still a long way to go, but just to have the diaspora coming back is a huge boost for the region’s residents who have long felt forgotten.”