The Hardship of the Afars

By: Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
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[ Posted On: 2008-09-15 ]

In some of East Africa’s most arid territories, the Afars have been double victim of racist and dictatorial Abyssinian policy and underdevelopment. For some months there is water shortage, then comes the flood, and finally stagnant waters are left for enough time to spread malaria. The occupied Afar Land is one of the best reasons and proofs that Abyssinia (fallaciously renamed as ‘Ethiopia’) cannot and should not be left as a united country; as long as the country remains united, natural resources of occupied territories are stolen by the parasitic, malignant and racist Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic Abyssinians and the income is used for development in their cursed territories. The Abyssinian tyrannical practice – worse than Hitler’s treatment of the Jews – consists in guarantee for permanent underdevelopment.

Viable and sustainable development can be the concern of a national government, but since the last decade of the 19th century the Afars have lived under the colonial rule that caused an incredible phenomenon of trichotomy; the Afars were divided among the Abyssinians, the Italians (in control of today’s Eritrea’s territory) and the French (theirs was Djibouti, then French Somali territory) until the middle of the 20th century only to find themselves equally oppressed (since 1991) by Abyssinia, Eritrea and Djibouti.

Self-criticism needed

Sometimes political misconceptions led to disastrous situations; it is therefore necessary to undergo a certain self-criticism. With respect to the Afars, the politically disastrous position was taken in 1993; then, Eritrea received formal recognition in the UN. The Afars reacted to the event erroneously.

The correct stance would involve an all-Afar demand for a UN Committee tasked to set up an Afar Land demarcation line and for a subsequent referendum for Independence. Before the emergence of Eritrea, the Afars were victims of dichotomy (between Djibouti and Abyssinia); however, dichotomy and subordination are not a ‘solution’ for a great historical African Nation like the Afars. Dichotomy should never be preferred to trichotomy, as both signify lack of freedom for the Afar Land.

However, this was not the main Afar approach by then; a three-man Afar delegation moved to New York City only to state that their Red Sea region was annexed by Eritrea and that it should be returned to its historical and legal owner – “Ethiopia”.

In fact, this was historically wrong; the Afar Red Sea region (which truly consists in a sizeable portion of Eritrea’s territory) was not “theirs” but their rulers’ who were not Afar, but Amhara and Tigray Monophysitic Abyssinians, the traditional, venomous enemy of the Afars.

Even worse, it is practically impossible for an Afar, whose land has been partly invaded by the Abyssinians to possibly recognize Abyssinia (fake ‘Ethiopia’) as “historical and legal owner” of their land.

No one took the Afar representation seriously, as many believed that it was rather due to considerable bribery. As a matter of fact, the campaign that the United Nations should recognize Eritrea as a sovereign nation – leaving thus Abyssinia as a landlocked territory – was spearheaded by Meles Zenawi, who was then thought to be federalist, democratic and humanist! The concept was totally devoid of enmity or rivalry, and was thus viewed positively.

The Afar delegation should have understood that only their national interests would matter, if correctly defended, and that it would be ridiculous for them to appear as defending the monstrous, colonial Crime named ‘Abyssinia’ (fake Ethiopia) which – as the world’s most execrable tyranny – must be broken down to ten pieces and ultimately dissolved.

This disastrous mistake has been paid very dearly by the Afars ever since, and the proper conclusions have been drawn. Then, the Afars picked up the arms, and fought several brave fights as rebels of Afar Revolutionary Democratic Unity Front (ARDUF) but the struggle was not correctly modeled on the National Liberation and Re-unification pattern. The main problem of the Afar Nation is secession from the colonial tyranny of Abyssinia, and consequently the main battlefield is Abyssinia. In striking opposition to this reality, ARDUF had set out to battle the Isaias Afwerki regime in Asmara, which is purposeless as long as the colonial relic Abyssinia exists.

The earlier error was duplicated in the period 1998 – 2000, when during the first phase of the war between Eritrea and Abyssinia, ARDUF declared a unilateral ceasefire in support of the Abyssinian cannibals of Zenawi’s army. The monstrous Ethio-fascist gangster Zenawi, to thank ARDUF, turned against them as soon as he could withdraw some of his racist Amhara and Tigray death squads that he had sent to fight against Eritrea.

To undertake a national liberation struggle, all the Afars (from Abyssinia, Eritrea and Djibouti) must unite into one movement and liberation army and set the first goal: liberation of the occupied Afar Land from Abyssinia. The other parts will gradually follow.

Here I republish a series of documents illuminating the present troubles of the Afars; Hasena’s story, due to the pioneering work of the leading NGO AMREF (http://www.amref.org/who-we-are/), highlights the tragic conditions of underdevelopment under which the outright majority of the Afar still live. The AHRO Press Release reveals snapshots from the Afar Land at the time of flood (August – September).

Ethiopia: Hasena's story
http://www.amref.org/personal-stories/hasenas-story/

“My twin daughters died when they were only two years old. I didn’t know what was wrong with them, they were both very ill and I was weak with a fever. So I carried them for two days to the nearest health centre, walking as fast as I could. It was hot and dry and my babies just kept getting worse. When I was a few hours away from the health centre they both stopped crying. When I arrived, the nurse told me that it was too late to treat their malaria.”

Hasena lives in Kodae village in the remote desert region of Afar, 40 miles from the nearest health centre. Sadly, her story is not uncommon. But AMREF refuses to accept this situation. Just because people live in remote rural areas of Africa doesn’t mean they should struggle to find basic health care and die of easily preventable and treatable diseases.

Kodae village is home to about 3,000 people, living in round-shape houses made of thatch. There is no electricity, no health centre or school, and the only water available is the nearby Awash River.

It is one of many villages in Afar that benefited from the distribution of 90,000 mosquito nets. A massive operation, AMREF delivered as many as they could by vehicle and then used convoys of donkeys to reach the most remote communities.
When the nets arrived in Kodae, trained village health workers delivered the nets to people’s doors, explaining their importance and how they should be used.

Hasena was one of the many women who received two mosquito nets. She explains: “Now that I have the nets I am going to use one inside the house for my husband, myself and the two youngest children and the rest will sleep under the other net outside. If I stick with this routine I am confident that none of my children will get malaria again.”

AMREF also trained 300 village health workers to diagnose and treat malaria and pass this knowledge on to community members.

“Before I got the nets, my seven-year old son Ibrahim caught malaria,” explains Hasena, “but I was able to recognise the symptoms thanks to the information I received from the village health worker. She treated him with anti-malarial drugs and he has now made a complete recovery.”

“Now, we are far more hopeful about the future,” explains Hasena. “Armed with our mosquito nets and our knowledge, we hope that we can stop our children dying from this horrible but preventable disease.”

The Flood Victim Afars of Ethiopia Need Urgent Humanitarian Responses!

By the Afar Human Rights Organisation (AHRO)

Press Release (October 2007)

The Afar pastoralists face a humanitarian disaster caused by flash flooding. The Afar region is a plain land adjacent to the Ethiopian highland plateau. Most rivers and streams emanated from the eastern highland and ends up into the Afar lowlands, which exposes the Afar land to flooding every rainy season.

Additional factor to the flash flooding in Afar is the release of excess water from the Koka Dam. The Koka Dam on the Awash River was completed in 1960 with an initial capacity of 1.8 billion m3 and remains as a major source of hydroelectric power in the country.

The Koka Dam releases most of its polluted and contaminated water during the rainy season, which is directly used by the pastoralists and their livestock. The magnitude of flash flooding and its adverse effect on the livelihood of Afar society raises serious concern.

The past governments established huge State Farms along Awash Valley to earn hard currency from cotton plantation. During this time the State Farms were protected from flooding by construction of dykes and a regular water brigade that worked all year round.

When State Farms were dismantled by the TPLF- led regime the whole area remained open for regular flooding that displaced tens of thousands of people and livestock. So far, an emergency aid and humanitarian assistance both by government and NGO is nonexistent. Neither exist a long term plan for flood management to curb the recurrent flood related humanitarian disaster in the region.

The stagnant water in the area is now a source for malaria and waterborne diseases. The flooding meant also a competition between humans and wild animals in search of dry places. As a consequence there are reports of causalities by hyenas, lions, crocodiles and snakes which are also displaced by the flooding.

Water protected areas are occupied and guarded by the TPLF-army to safeguard the sugar cane plantations. Thus, there is a clear indication that the TPLF wishes to see the Awash Valley evacuated for the investors affiliated to the regime and intentionally neglects to address the tragedy of Afar people.

The disaster is often clearly seen in towns, where there are government institutions, which may draw the attention of media and solicit immediate response. However, the scale of flooding crisis is huge among the pastoralist majority of the region. At the end of August to September this year, the first gust of flooding occurred in Burimodayto wereda engulfing the wereda surrounded in water and washed away most livestock.

In Dulecha woreda all eastern Kebeles, in Amihbara all the northern Kebeles, and in Zone five all eastern Kebeles are subject to sever flooding. In Zone one, Rumayto, Gaali Fagi, Dat Bahari, Harisa and Bayahele are surrounded by water and heavily affected by flooding. Even Awra and Uwa rivers caused flooding. The total population affected by the flooding was estimated 50000 of which about 10 000 people are only from Burimodayto in Zone three.

Afar Human Rights Organisation believes that there is an immediate need to help the displaced people by humanitarian organisations.

AHRO call upon international community to help the displaced Afars by the flooding!

We call upon all humanitarian NGOs to investigate the flooding disasters and mobilise aid to affected people of the Afars in Ethiopia!

You can contact and support our effort through e-mail:ahro2006@hotmail.com

Article Source: http://www.afroarticles.com/article-dashboard

About The Author: Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis - is Orientalist, Assyriologist, Egyptologist, Iranologist, Islamologist, Historian and Political Scientist. Dr. Megalommatis, 51, is the author of 12 books, dozens of scholarly articles, hundreds of encyclopedia entries, and thousands of articles. He speaks, reads and writes more than 15, modern and ancient, languages.

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