ETHIOPIA: Thousands displaced by floods in Somali region (IRIN)

ADDIS ABABA, 18 November 2008 (IRIN) - At least 52,000 people have abandoned their homes in Ethiopia's Somali region after the Wade Shabelle and Genale rivers burst their banks following heavy rains.

"Heavy rains pounded western highlands and six woredas [administrative wards] in the Somali region, causing floods," Ramadan Haji Ahmed, head of the government's disaster prevention department in the region, said.

"The rain lasted six days from 2 November," he told IRIN.

The six woredas were in Gode, Afeder and Liben zones. Ramadan said 36,888 people were displaced and three killed in the worst-affected woreda, Kelafo, in Gode.

"The flood hit 14 kebeles [smallest administrative wards] and 85 villages in Kelafo," Ramadan said. "It washed away crops on 164 hectares."

Crops were also destroyed in West Emi woreda of Afder zone. "The Wabe Shebelle River burst its banks and flooded 17 kebeles in West Emi," Ramadan added. "Thanks to early warnings, the villagers fled to nearby mountains. The flood damaged crops on 3,200 hectares."

At least 10,740 displaced people have been registered in Dolo Odo woreda of Liben zone. "Dolo Odo was flooded after the overflow of Genale river," Ramadan said. "The roads from Dolo Odo to Filtu and Negele are also blocked."

Floods cut off the road linking Degahabur town with Gode zone after the Dirkot River burst its banks.

"We brought 30 vehicles of aid from Dire Dawa central warehouse but we could not continue to Gode due to the damaged road," Ramadan said. "We are now preparing to use another road."

However, he feared the continued heavy rains would hamper relief efforts.

"Meteorology reports show there will not be heavy rain in the next three days," he said. "If there is any heavy rain, the only choice is an airlift."

The Disaster Prevention and Preparedness Bureau in the region has begun dispatching relief food and was preparing to distribute non-food items.

"All affected woredas need emergency relief," Ramadan said. "We have not yet released any appeal, but it will be ready as soon as we get a complete assessment of the situation."

In 2007, flooding left 135,000 people displaced across Ethiopia. In August, flash floods in Gambella regional state displaced about 20,000 people.

More Blowback from the War on Terror: By Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorism counsel, published in Salon

The U.S.-backed Ethiopian military has secreted away scores of "suspects" – including pregnant women and children – and fueled anti-American rancor in Africa.

Ishmael, a 37-year-old shepherd from the Ogaden region in Ethiopia, looked at me with tears in his eyes. Ethiopian forces – who had already killed his mother, father, brothers and sisters – murdered his wife days after they were married. They then slaughtered his goats, beat him unconscious, and slashed his shoulder to the bone, he said.

In December 2006, Ishmael crossed through Somalia into Kenya, heading for the nearest refugee camp in search of medical care. But when he didn't have enough money to pay a 1,000 shilling ($15) bribe, the Kenyan police bundled him into a car and took him to Nairobi. Less than a month later, he was herded onto an airplane with some 30 others, flown to Somalia and handed over to the Ethiopian military – the same forces that he previously fled.

Ishmael is a victim of a 2007 rendition program in the Horn of Africa, involving Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and the United States. There are at least 90 more victims like him. Most have since been sent home. A few – including a Canadian and nine who assert Kenyan nationality – remain in detention even now. The whereabouts of 22 others – including several Somalis, Ethiopian Ogadenis, and Eritreans – remain unknown.

In late 2006, the Bush administration backed a full-scale Ethiopian military offensive that ousted the Islamist authorities from Somalia's capital, Mogadishu. The fighting caused thousands of Somalis, including some who were suspected of terrorist links, to flee across the Kenya border.

Kenyan authorities arrested at least 150 men, women and children from more than 18 countries – including the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada – in operations near the Somali border, and held them for weeks without charge in Nairobi. In January and February 2007, the Kenyan government then unlawfully put dozens of these individuals – with no notice to families, lawyers or the detainees themselves – on flights to Somalia, where they were handed over to the Ethiopian military. Ethiopian forces also arrested an unknown number of people in Somalia.

Those rendered were later transported to detention centers in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa and other parts of Ethiopia, where they effectively disappeared. Denied access to their embassies, their families and international humanitarian organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, the detainees were even denied phone calls home. Several detainees have said that they were housed in solitary cells, some as small as two meters by two meters, with their hands cuffed in painful positions behind their backs and their feet bound together any time they were in their cells.

An unknown number of them – likely dozens – were questioned by the Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents in Addis Ababa. From February to May 2007, Ethiopian security officers daily transported detainees – including several pregnant women – to a villa where US officials interrogated them about suspected terrorist links. At night the Ethiopian officers returned the detainees to their cells.

For the most part, detainees were sent home soon after their interrogation by US agents ended. Of those known to have been interrogated by US officials, just eight Kenyans remain. (A ninth Kenyan in Addis Ababa was rendered to Ethiopia in August 2007, after US interrogations reportedly stopped.) These men, who have not been subjected to any interrogation since May 2007, would likely have been repatriated long ago but for the Kenyan government’s longstanding refusal to acknowledge their claims to Kenyan citizenship or to take steps to secure their release.

Recently I spoke by telephone to several of the still-detained Kenyans. They described water-soaked mattresses, insufficient food and inadequate healthcare. Two said they have trouble walking, following beatings by Ethiopian officials, and a third said he can no longer use his left hand.

“I can’t sleep here. I miss my family. Please, I need you to help us to go home,” one detainee pleaded with me.

In mid-August 2008, Kenyan authorities visited these men for the first time. The officials reportedly told the detainees they would be home within a few weeks. But more than a month and a half has passed with no apparent follow-up.

In addition to working with the US, the Ethiopians used the rendition program for their own ends. For years, the Ethiopian military has been trying to quell domestic Ogadeni and Oromo insurgencies that receive support from neighboring countries, such as Ethiopia's archrival, Eritrea. The multinational rendition program provided them a convenient means to continue this internal battle – and get their hands, with US and Kenyan support, on those with suspected insurgent links.

Ishmael was one of their victims.

The questions his Ethiopian interrogators asked were nonstop, and always the same: "Are you al-Qaida? Are you an Ogadeni rebel? Are you part of the Somali insurgency?" Each time he said no, he was beaten, sometimes to the point of unconsciousness. When he resisted answering, they targeted his testicles.

Then, in February 2008 – some 14 months after his original arrest – the Ethiopians decided Ishmael was no longer worth the trouble. They dumped him, along with 27 others, just over the Somali border. The men were met by a Somali officer who told him that he was very sorry, that their arrest was a mistake and that they were all innocent.

Now Ishmael is back in the refugee camp, limping and urinating blood. He is still waiting for the healthcare he came searching for nearly two years ago.

Almost everyone I spoke with assumed – whether true or not – that the United States backed the arbitrary arrest and unlawful rendition of men like Ishmael and the still-detained Kenyans. Almost everyone assumed that the Ethiopians operate with America's blessing. Their stories have circulated, fueling anger and resentment. As one man, whose childhood friend became one of the rendition victims, told me, "Now when I go to the mosque, I pray to God to punish the Americans."

To be sure, the United States is not the main culprit when the Kenyans unlawfully render suspects or the Ethiopians torture them. But when US officials interrogate rendition victims who are being held incommunicado, the United States becomes complicit in the abuse. The U.S. is funding the Ethiopian military, supporting its activities in Somalia and training Kenyan security forces in counterterrorism – so as US-backed military and police forces in the region brutalize their domestic opponents in the name of fighting terrorism, the United States is often blamed.

The United States could change those perceptions by demanding higher standards of its foreign partners and cutting off aid to abusers. It otherwise risks fueling the very problem – anti-American militancy – that it seeks to solve. For starters, the US could demand the release or fair trial of any rendition victims still stuck in Ethiopian custody.

At the end of our interview, Ishmael looked at me with sad eyes. "I have suffered three times," he told me. "I lost my family; I was beaten and tortured, and then I was arrested and tortured again. Now I have nothing to lose."

Somali Region, Ethiopia: Thousands of IDPs in Search of Food and Water

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is currently witnessing a deteriorating humanitarian situation around the town of Wardher, in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. Internally displaced people (IDPs) are gathering in the thousands on the town’s outskirts, purportedly in search of food and water. An estimated 8,000 to 10,000 people are currently living in squalid conditions; under makeshift shelters, with limited access to water, no sanitation, and the carcasses of dead animals around them.

In response, MSF is providing medical care to both IDPs and town inhabitants from our easily accessible clinic, located in Wardher town. These services are extended to the wider communities within the Wardher and Danood districts through mobile clinics. Activities include a nutritional program to treat malnourished children under five years, incorporating ambulatory therapeutic feeding and inpatient care for complicated severe cases. MSF is further working closely with all relevant actors, including other nongovernmental organizations and government bodies, to assess the situation in order to respond to the growing needs of people in the area. Preparations are under way for improving access to drinking water and sanitation, along with vaccinations against measles and raising health awareness through community health workers recruited from within the camps.

Many of the IDPs, traditionally nomadic people, are saying that in the areas they usually inhabit there is currently not enough food or water to survive. Further, many report the death of large numbers of livestock, on which they depend for food and livelihood. This year’s drought seems to have pushed these already vulnerable people, suffering from protracted conflict and minimal resources, even further into despair.

MSF in the Somali Region
MSF provides primary healthcare in two locations in the Somali Region of Ethiopia: Degahbur and Wardher town. In recent months, the team in Degahbur have admitted an increasing number of children under five into their program—although recently the number has stabilized. The situation there is of concern, but is not comparable to what we now see in Wardher. Working in just two locations in Ogaden, it is impossible for MSF to comment on the nutritional situation regionally. We continue to run emergency nutritional interventions and ongoing healthcare projects throughout the south and north of the country.

Nomads blame Ethiopian military for starvation: By Channel 4

A goat herder in the Ogaden desert. Herdsmen say that their children have died from eating poisonous buds from trees for lack of anything else to eat

Jonathan Rugman in Jijiga

Ethiopia has been accused of deliberately underestimating the scale of a deadly drought facing millions of its people, some of whom are being deprived of emergency food aid by the country’s military.

The humanitarian crisis, caused by three years of failed rains, currently affects about 4.6 million people, though the official number could jump to as high as 6.7 million this week.

United Nations agencies say that the real number at risk is above 8 million, an estimate disputed hotly by Addis Ababa, which is insisting on publishing a much lower figure.

“The figure has risen very substantially, maybe even doubled,” said Sir John Holmes, the UN’s emergency relief co-ordinator, who visited Ethiopia earlier this month. “Any government doesn’t want to be perceived as always in the position of receiving aid.”
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The crisis is at its most worrying in the vast deserts of the Ogaden region, where the UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) says in a confidential alert to donors that it is receiving “increasing reports of hunger-related mortality”. About two million people are at risk until the main rains fall next spring – if they fall at all. The Ogaden is Ethiopia’s biggest and most remote state.

Nomadic tribes there are resorting to eating dead leaves and cactus fruit to survive the worst drought since the famines of 1984-85, when an estimated one million Ethiopians died.

A twenty-mile trek on foot into the bush revealed mediaeval mud-hut villages, where ethnic Somali herdsmen say that their children have died after eating poisonous buds from trees, for lack of anything else to eat. Others say that they depend on camel milk and meat because cattle, sheep and goats have perished in their thousands.

“I am ill and hungry,” said one man, removing his shirt to reveal his rib cage visible through taut skin. “Because of the drought we have nothing to eat. The only people who receive food are the military forces.”

The UN has raised about 60 per cent of $325 million (£181 million) it is seeking in emergency relief for Ethiopia and says that it is suffering a shortfall of about 300,000 tonnes of aid.

The WFP has told donors that it blames Ethiopia’s “delays in recognising the extent of need” for causing the rapid depletion of existing food stocks. But a Channel 4 News investigation tonight claims that the army has withheld food from villages in the Ogaden deliberately as part of a “scorched earth” policy against separatist rebels of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF).

Herdsmen in villages almost completely cut off from the outside world said that many of their animals had been killed by Ethiopian soldiers, who also deprived them of water.

“We walk for eight hours to collect water,” said Abdi, a villager about three hours from Jijiga, the regional capital. “Then the military take the water from us. They say the rebels pass through our villages and that we give them supplies. But what can we give? We are dying of hunger. We have nothing to give to our own children.”

The UN says that it has negotiated with the Ethiopian army for the military’s role in food distribution to be kept to a minimum. “If there is a situation where food is taken by the military, we protest,” said Mohammed Diab, the WFP’s Ethiopia director.

However, a confidential investigation by USAid, the US Government’s disaster relief agency, complained in March that “literally hundreds of areas . . . have neither been assessed nor received any food assistance”, with “populations we met terrorised by the inability to access food”.

“This situation would be shameful in any other country,” the report concludes. “The US Government cannot in good conscience allow the food operation to continue in its current manifestation.” The US is spending more than £230 million on food aid for Ethiopia this year but is hamstrung from being too critical in public; Washington sees Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, as an ally in the War on Terror after Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia in 2005, which ousted an Islamist administration from power.

Britain has doubled its annual aid to Ethiopia in the last three years to £130 million, including £15 million this summer through the UN’s Humanitarian Response Fund, while Save the Children (SCF) is halfway through a campaign to raise £10 million for the country. Two SCF workers were expelled from the Ogaden last year amid allegations – rejected by SCF – that they had diverted food to ONLF rebels. The British charity abandoned a full-scale feeding programme, fearing supplies could be diverted.

UN aid chief wants more access to Ethiopia's conflict zone

KEBRI DEHAR, Ethiopia (AFP) — UN humanitarian chief John Holmes on Tuesday urged Ethiopia to grant aid groups access to conflict zones in the southern Ogaden region where the army is battling a rebel group.

Ethiopian military launched a crackdown last year on the region after the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) attacked a Chinese-run oil venture, killing 77 people.

Aid workers say the military operation has caused a humanitarian crisis, displacing hundreds of thousands of people, many of them fleeing to lawless neighbouring Somalia.

"There are still some areas (in Ogaden) where access is more limited because conflict is more active. That's where we want to press (the governement) for more free access," he told reporters during a fact-finding mission to the country.

"We need to be allowed to work freely, do our assessments freely and be able to release data."

But he conceded that aid agencies had unfettered access in one Ogaden region, Kebri Dehar. "It's a lot better than it was when I was here last year."

But he criticised inadequate civilian and human rights protection in Ogaden, a barren, impoverished region where the discovery of gas and oil has brought new hopes of wealth as well as new causes of conflict.

"We haven't had a satisfaction that I would like on that and I have raised that question with the government," he said.

Ethiopia has denied as exaggerated charges by aid groups that military operation has hampered delivery of aid to the region.

Holmes is on a three-day visit to Ethiopia, where 4.6 million people need emergency assistance and eight million others need immediate food relief due a severe drought, according to the UN humanitarian office (OCHA).

The Tale of Two Canadians

by Mohamed A. Suleiman
Saturday, August 16, 2008

Recently, there have been two high profile cases of Canadians incarcerated in foreign countries. The cases of Brenda Martin, who was detained by Mexican authorities in February 2006 on charges of money laundering, and Bashir Makhtal, who was detained at the Somali-Kenyan border in January 2007 and flown to Ethiopia on what is clearly a case of extraordinary rendition, grabbed the attention of Canadians throughout the country.

The way that the Canadian government handled the incarceration of these two citizens heightened concerns among all Canadians about the ability of the government to protect its citizens in the global village. In both cases, the government got involved only after the media reported on the plight of the two individuals.

In the case of Brenda Martin, the government initially ignored pleas from family and friends and reluctantly intervened only after the CTV News Program W-Five aired Brenda’s plight. Canadians from all walks of life were shocked by the horrendous condition under which Brenda was being held. Without judging her guilt or innocence, Canadians who were outraged by her suffering called upon their government to do whatever they could to get her out of the miserable situation that she was in.

Several things worked toward Brenda Martin’s advantage. She happened to be a mainstream Canadian. Her family and friends therefore escalated her case’s profile and pressed the government for action. This was coupled with the fact that the government came under fire from critics and the opposition parties who demanded that the government take an active role in ending Ms. Martin’s plight.

In fact, former Prime Minister, Paul Martin, got involved and expressed his concern to the Mexican authorities.

Eventually, the federal government used its influence and started intervention at the highest possible levels. Fortunately, Brenda Martin is free today and, despite her horrendous ordeal, is home in Canada with her loved ones.

In the case of Bashir Makhtal, the government also ignored pleas from family and friends and reluctantly started low level contacts with his Ethiopian captors only after the popular CBC News Program “The Current” broke the news of his incarceration to Canadians.

It appears that several things worked against Bashir Makhtal. He happened to be a new Canadian, a person of African origin, and a Muslim. He also happened to belong to a community of recent immigrants who have no political or economic clout in the Canadian landscape.

Paul Dewar, NDP Foreign Affairs Critic " Bashir Makhtal is a person of color and a new Canadian"

Paul Dewar, an NDP MP for Ottawa Centre who is one of the few politicians who voiced their concerns about Mr. Makhtal’s incarceration in Ethiopia told a CBC reporter a few weeks ago that the difference between Brenda Martin’s case and that of Bashir Makhtal is the fact that: “Mr. Makhtal is a person of color and a new Canadian”.

There is another element to the equation that complicates Bashir Makhtal’s case that no one seems to want to talk about. It is the fact that Bashir Makhtal is a Muslim. And judging from the Canadian government’s track record on protecting its Muslim Canadians in the post 9/11 era, there appears to a double standard in the way even the Charter of Rights and Freedoms is interpreted or enforced.

We all know how the Canadian government and its institutions that were trusted with safeguarding the rights of its citizens colluded with the United States authorities in the infamous rendition of Maher Arar to the torture chambers in Syria. We also know the case of the young Omar Khadar and the fact that Canada now enjoys the dubious distinction of being the only western democracy that has a detainee in Quantanamo Bay.

While Brenda Martin’s freedom from the Mexican jail could largely be credited to the political action that was started by her family and friends and supported by ordinary Canadians, the continuing incarceration of Bashir Makhtal in the gallows of the filthy Guantanamo Bay style dungeon in the Ethiopia proper is largely due to the inaction of the Somali and Muslim community.

This inaction, apathy, or complacency on the part of the Muslim community is not without its root causes, however.

Canadian Muslims are disillusioned about their status as citizens in the post 9/11 era. The government’s handling of the cases of Maher Arar, Omar Khadar, and now Bashir Makhtal continues only to add to their disillusionment.

While some in the mainstream media are quick and eager to blasphemise and smear the image of Muslims, the Muslim community is rendered helpless by the fact that the so-called “security certificate” is felt to be hanging over the neck of each one of its members. Therefore, they could not talk, write, or organize simply because their efforts and/or actions could be construed in such a way that it may put them in harms way.

It is plainly obvious that there is a double standard in the way that even something as basic and universal as the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is exercised or interpreted.

The Harper government’s inefficacious and arrogant attitude towards the plight of Bashir Makhtal adds insult to the injury. It is a stark reminder that the conservative government continues to harbor anti-Islamic and anti-immigrant tendencies.

How else could we explain the fact that Bashir Makhtal is languishing in a dungeon in a country that receives one hundred million dollars annually in foreign aid from the Canadian government?

It defies logic that the federal government could not use its leverage with the Ethiopian authorities, if nothing else, to press Ethiopia to respect the universal principles of the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. Anything short of that would mean that the federal government is once again colluding with a foreign entity to deny one of its citizens the due process with which the justice system of this nation is founded.

Canadians should be concerned about their safety and security in the global village and should demand more from their government. Muslim Canadians in particular should not be paralyzed by the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy. They should be vocal, demand equal treatment under the law, and take their rightful position in this uniquely multicultural country of ours.

Bashir Makhtal’s life is in a real danger. He was forced to appear in a kangaroo military court and confess to some serious charges that could result in summary execution. The Ethiopian government’s dismal human rights record makes this scenario that much too real.

A group of concerned Canadian citizens has started lobbying the federal government on behalf of Mr. Makhtal. They are committed to bring the plight of this Canadian citizen to the forefront so that his case should be afforded the attention that it deserves.

Canadians from all walks of life should come together and rally behind this group and should bring Mr. Makhtal home just as they did bring Brenda Martin home from Mexico. Anything less than that will perpetuate the existing perceptions.

TPLF Obliterating NGOs in the Ogaden –Two more NGOs’ Licences Revoked

We have, on several occasions, stated how it is becoming increasingly difficult for international aid organizations to work in the Ogaden, and as a result they are opting to create partnerships with grass-roots, local Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs) who have long and better experience in reaching out the intended beneficiaries. On the other hand, we noted how the TPLF led regime has been busy in implementing policies hostile to NGOs in the past years. As, similar to other nationalities, Ogaden people continue to suffer at the hands of brutal Woyyane oppression, TPLF and its stooges are committed to harass NGOs operating in this part of the world. On August 07, 2008 the so called Regional President Abdullahi Hassan better known as Lugbuur has through a letter commanded the suspension of two local NGOs’ licenses.

The two NGOs, Alnejah Relief, Rehabilitation and Development Organization (ARRDO) and Hope for the Horn (HFH) are among the first and few in the region with some community projects in various areas in the Ogaden. I am not writing this article to defend any wrong-doing by these NGOs like the claimed corruption, unethical conduct, attitudinal problems, mismanagement etc. They can commit errors but it is outrageous and shameful the way their license is suspended.

First of all, according to current constitution, it is the mandate of Ministry of Justice to grant NGOs with licences and only this ministry can revoke or suspend these licences. As a matter of decentralization, the ministry also gives directives to the Disaster Preparedness, and Prevention Agency (DPPA) on how to deal with some issues regarding local organizations. Apparently, the action of Lugbuur is violating the current regime’s own constitution and instead of warning Lugbuur, Deputy Prime Minister, Addisu Leggese who was touring Jigjiga last week with other ministers has applauded for criminals like Lugbuur for massacring the Ogaden people.

Before suspending any NGOs license there must be a clear legal procedure beginning with investigation of allegations. Only with solid evidence can action be taken by either the DPPA, the Ministry, or generally by the Federal Ethics and Anti Corruption Commission all of which are Institutions used by TPLF as they wish. Even after this investigation it does not imply NGO’s license is automatically suspended if found guilty or culpable. Rather their Code of Conduct states other options such as issuing a warning, or targeting the person responsible for the wrong-doing depending on the scale of the breach.

Lugbuur’s move is not the first of its kind. He is just doing the dirty job of TPLF. Whenever they want to play such games they order him to pretend as if he is the ruler of the region while he is not more than a puppet. Otherwise it is not he; rather it is the TPLF cadre sitting next to him that dictates the daily affairs. It is the same history when he ordered several International NGOs like ICRC and MSF-Swiss to cease operations in the Ogaden. At that time, in an interview with the media, he denied any federal interference, while he later confessed to one of his relatives that he was given orders to expel the ICRC and he did so without knowing the reason behind.

Sarcastically, one wonders how Lugbuur and his fellow stooges can accuse others of corruption while they have stolen hundreds of millions of public money during their three and half years in the puppet administration. Where did really all these money go? Where did all those ambitious projects designed over qat-chewing cessions end up? We –the people- do not know, far worse we cannot seek answers. Right now the people bother neither about transparency nor accountability, checks and controls. Only if we were left alone for our lives!!!

This latest development comes as the people are in one of their most critical time to survive. The two affected NGOs have been working in partnership with many international donor organizations such as United Nations (UNICEF, WFP, WHO), OXFAM, ICCO, Muslim Aid, Christian Aid, MSF, Save the Children, Muslim Hands etc and with this threat of terminating ongoing projects as well as future ones, many beneficiaries whose only hope of survival was these NGOs will definitely be left out to a grim fate, not to mention the hundreds of employees and their families who suddenly face income insecurity.
Our people are made powerless and voiceless and it is not ironic to turn to the international community for help for they can influence TPLF’s policies if they really want to. Nevertheless, it only makes us more heartbroken to see the international community’s response to this crisis not being on par with the gravity of the problem.

A True Story of an Ogaden Woman

The following is a real story of an Ogadeni woman. She is only one of the many unfortunate women in this region and if Victor Hugo of the nineteenth century was present in the Ogaden right now he would have written dozens, perhaps hundreds of Les Miserables about them!

It is about 01:30 pm local time and it is an unusually windy day in a dusty and dry village in one of Ogadens remotest areas. The temperature seems unforgivingly higher and the sun appears to have moved closer to the earth. The dry season has persisted longer than expected but people never give up looking at the barren sky; day in day out they pray for clouds of hope, clouds of rain. People and animals, and all other living things are competing for survival. Most importantly they are competing for scarce water and shade. Under an old acacia tree, lies a woman in her late fifties on a worn out mattress. She is a woman with a miserable life but with strong faith in God and that is why her smile is full of life and she repeats Alhamdulillaah. I Thank You Allah.

Ardo used to lead a normal nomadic life in one of the remotest and driest areas in the Ogaden. She had a large family consisting of 13 children and husband. They were not rich but compared to their community they were well off for they had a large number of camel herds and about hundred and fifty shoats and the children would at normal times consume milk at least two times a day. As a mother of more than a dozen of children, she had a busy life from taking care of the children, looking after some herds, managing the economy of the household, traveling long distances to the nearest town to sell animal products and buy needed items etc. She is well known in her locality by her hard work and strong sprit that keeps her rolling like a storm. All in al,l she was the engine of her large family.

Throughout her life, Ardo had came across many sad days as she struggled to make ends meet in the troubled land of Ogaden but none was as darker as the day she woke up without being able to see things! It was typical Jiilaal day where the violent temperature could be felt early in the morning. One night, she just came back from the nearby town where she sold two of her best goats to cope with the unforgiving dry season at which time survival of human beings is the biggest objective of every pastoralist in the area. After a long and tiresome journey by foot, she fell asleep late at that night after serving food to her family who depends on her for almost everything. Apart from the fatigue she remembers she had a severe headache which resembles migrin and locally known as Dhanjaf. Imagine if you suddenly wake up without your sense of sight! She could not believe her eyes! Shocked by the incident, she tried to verify that she is awake and not dreaming. She rubbed and rubbed her eyes with her fingers, she tried to reach and touch and feel things that were surrounding her. Yes she could feel things and hear the noise of the livestock just outside her traditional house –aqal Soomaali. But still she could not SEE!!!

After all her efforts were dashed by an undeniable fact, that she became blind, it was finally time to seek help. She called the names of some of her children. Her eldest daughter was the first to arrive at her mother’s side. When she learned what happened to her mother she could not help stop crying for the whole day. Indeed this was the saddest day on earth for the whole family. Her younger brother knew that something had to be done to save his mother’s sight. The first possible and less costly thing they would try was to call someone who could heal their beloved mother traditionally, but this proved to no avail. Sooner it was obvious that Ardo had to be checked by an eye specialist doctor.

The nearest hospital in the area lies in Godey, about 450 km from their vicinity and even if they can reach there, the Hospital is the best example of the extreme underdevelopment in the region as it lacks even the most basic equipment and supplies, it has no surgical ward or surgeon. People arriving in critical need of surgery are therefore unlikely to survive. In the Hospital, there is only one doctor –himself being medical practitioner –and no eye care center. By the way there is no a single Ophthalmology center in the whole Ogaden Region (or Somali Region –whatever you call it) and those who can afford the costs travel either to Dire Dawa or to neighboring Somalia for ophthalmologic and other treatments.

After some preparations Ardo and her family decided that she should travel to Dire Dawa where she had a sister whom she could rely on when traveling for medication. So her only hope was to contact her sister so that her sister could arrange accommodation and doctor appointments. Despite droughts and poor livestock market prices, they were forced to sell the best of her shoats and some camels to get enough cash for the costly journey and treatment. Two of her children followed her to Dire Dawa. Finally it was time to meet an Ophthalmologist but unfortunately, it was too late to help Ardo!!! After a long investigation the doctor finally informed Ardo through an interpreter that nothing could be done to restore her sight because the optic nerves of both eyes were dead!!! The only thing Ardo could say was Innaa Lillaahi wa Innaa Ilayhi Raaji’uun –We belong to Allah, and to Him we return.

Though her sister promised her to care for her, Ardo decided to go back to her isolated and remote home, yes nothing like home. Since she lost her sight Ardo’s life was complicated by insecurity and vulnerability. As if this was not enough, Ardo’s tragedy was to continue as those who would help her were themselves victims of natural and man made disasters. The last time she heard about her man was when he was imprisoned with four other men for an unknown reason and since then no one knows if he is alive or not! The eldest of her boys was arrested by Puntland army in Gaalkacyo and handed him over to the Ethiopian Army in Wardheer. Also his whereabouts is unknown to her. The second boy who was attending education in Jigjiga is now mentally ill and because of this he is chained by relatives in fear of harming himself or others. The only Mental Hospital is Amanuel Hospital in Addis Ababa –more than a thousand km distance. The latest and perhaps the worst tragedy Ardo heard is that of her daughter (who was the most helpful to her) who has passed away because of pregnancy complications, like her younger sister, when she was about to give birth to her third child. Her smile and content would make you think as if she is the happiest being in this universe in spite of losing the most important things in life: her sight, her family, her wealth (livestock) etc.
This is just a summary of the story but one thing is clear: There are thousand Ardos in the Ogaden whose lives could have been saved by a simple clinic or health post. However, TPLF’s war against civilians, economic blockade, expulsion of NGOs, lack of Basic health and other infrastructure facilities, recurrent droughts, media black-out, etc complicate the fate of Ogadeni ordinary people like Ardo.

Ogaden Should be a Top Priority for Condoleezza Rice

It was stated in a recent press release from State Department of the United States that the Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice will visit Addis Ababa on December 5 to tackle conflicts in the region. She will attend a meeting with the leaders of the Great Lakes countries. According to the press statement “… also will engage in consultations on current developments in Somalia and on implementation of Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) with cabinet ministers from east African countries as well as senior representatives of the African Union and United Nations.” Ironically, the statement did not mention if she will raise the deteriorating situation in Ogaden, not to mention the totalitarianism rule exercised by minority TPLF on Ethiopias diverse nations; and Ethio-Eritrea conflict.

This visit comes at a time when the world is alarmed by what has been unfolding in the Ogaden; a moment when international aid and human rights organisations witnessed the brutality of the TPLF regime; when the international media has been reporting the atrocities ordered by the bloodthirsty dictator Zenawi, by a time when for the first time the dystopia of Ogaden has been brought to the attention of peace loving Congressmen in the United States who have lately increased their lobby, individually and collectively, for peace and democracy in Ogaden, and Ethiopia in general; a time when the UN’s Head of Humanitarian Affairs has seen the problem by his very eyes.

The Bush administration has many times expressed sympathy to oppressed nations in some parts of the world, whatever the reason may be. They insistently clamored over Darfur; expressed their concern over Tibet and supported the independence of Kosovo to mention a few. Nevertheless, it is a pity to see the double-standardness of this administration as they support some of the worst oppressors on earth who know they are deliberately obliterating entire innocent ethnic group and yet claim they are pushing for counterinsurgency to eradicate a notorious rebel. Double-standardness is hypocrisy, pretence, and insincerity.

It is an open secret that the regime in power in Ethiopia is one of the most brutal administrations Africa has ever seen. Yet it appreciates the support of the world supper powers. According to statistics, Ethiopia receives the largest aid money from the United States not to mention the huge military support it receives in the name of the so called War on Terror. This regime has many times violated its own constitution which promises for citizens the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

If Secretary Rice and her administration are really committed to promote the values and principles of democracy, she has to act against the dictatorial regime that massacred innocent civilians in the streets of Addis Ababa, and arrested many thousands who demanded a fair election. A regime that massacres its own people by claiming they are rebel sympathisers, a regime that creates a man made famine to the same people it should have protected. Moreover, it is quite contemptuous for the white house officials to back a dictator who has many times acted against their own interest in Africa. Look at his strategic ties with China which is more than the Ogaden gas exploration.

Probably, one good way to understand the deep rooted problem of Ogaden is to visit the area independently and read the faces of the victims directly! I say independently because I remember what happened to Jendayi Fraser when her visit was arranged by the oppressors. The US marines, for example have been to Ogaden independently to monitor what is going on in Ogaden. Their interest in the region grew after September 11. They have independently met with ONLF army on the ground and received their cooperation. The marines confirmed what they have seen was not a terrorist organisation as claimed by desperate TPLF; instead the marines described to their seniors the nature of ONLF as a liberation movement. Two US soldiers and their Ogadeni-American interpreter Mohamed Abdi have been arrested by TPLF army in a remote village in Ogaden. The marines were promptly released and transferred to United States embassy in Addis Ababa. However, the interpreter remained in custody and was later released on july 29 after spending more than two months in a military camp without being charged. More than once, the marines cooperated aid delivery to the Ogaden, particularly Godey zone. They philanthropically rehabilitated some schools in Jigjiga including the only high school in the region. The marines also offered some medical assistance to Karamara hospital. All this helped to revive the bad Image associated with the USA after 9/11.

Although the Ogaden people were hurt by Jenday Frazer’s comments that followed her visit to Godey when she said that there was merely allegations that are 'unsubstantiated' and there was no genocide that has and was taking place in Ogaden. People are now welcoming, though sceptical, the increased aid by USA (I doubt, if this aid will end up in the right hands –the intended beneficiaries) which came after the visit of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator Henrietta Fore to Addis Ababa. We also hope that Dr Rice will be able to see which way the wind is blowing and will not be disillusioned by the so called War on Terror over basic human rights.

The most effective message, whether political, religious, or ethical or service – oriented is the one propagated by our life, otherwise every effort or resources injected into communicating the gospel and soul-winning will end up a wasteful venture. If Dr Rice is really coming to solve conflicts as stated in the press release, she should not simply ignore the Ogaden conlict and must not avoid telling her ally to live with the truth.
Eventually, while we feel sympathy to all the oppressed people be it Darfur or Palastine, it is a pity that the attention received by Ogaden now is not enough and much is expected by not only USA but also the United Nations, EU and the wider international community.

Aljazeera Reportd from Ogaden Refugee Camps in Kenya

Aljazeera's Week Long Reports in The Ogaden

Aljazeera's Exclusive Access to Ogaden

Aljazeera in the Heart of Ogaden