(Jan 28, 2012, (BBC)--Drive along any road between Ethiopia, Djibouti and Somalia and you are likely to see pick-up trucks, piled high with bundles of fresh green leaves, hurtling past you at terrific speed, horns blaring, lights flashing. A bit like ambulances. Or fire engines.
Land at any airport and you will see planes stuffed with the same green leaves, being unloaded at a frenzied pace. Whether there is war, drought or famine, the leaves get through. The khat industry booms. I used to wonder where all this khat was coming from. Now I know.
The small town of Awaday is in between Ethiopia's most holy Muslim town of Harar and its big eastern city of Dire Dawa. I first arrived in Awaday late at night. Unlike the other towns I had passed through, it was not quiet, dark and asleep. It was wide awake and madly, crazily busy. Read more from BBC »
Land at any airport and you will see planes stuffed with the same green leaves, being unloaded at a frenzied pace. Whether there is war, drought or famine, the leaves get through. The khat industry booms. I used to wonder where all this khat was coming from. Now I know.
The small town of Awaday is in between Ethiopia's most holy Muslim town of Harar and its big eastern city of Dire Dawa. I first arrived in Awaday late at night. Unlike the other towns I had passed through, it was not quiet, dark and asleep. It was wide awake and madly, crazily busy. Read more from BBC »
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