Friday, May 18, 2012

Obama Urged to Reassess Ethiopian Relations Over Land Evictions

May 18, 2012, Bloomberg)--The U.S. should reassess its support for the government of Ethiopia, amid concern that more than half a million people are being evicted to make land available for foreign investment in agriculture, advocacy groups including the Oakland Institute said.

A meeting tomorrow between President Barack Obama and Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, among other African leaders, presents an opportunity for the U.S. to address the issue, the California-based group said in a joint statement with the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia, or SMNE. The U.S. has provided aid worth more than $1 billion a year since 2007 to Ethiopia, according to the statement.

Foreign investment in commercial farming may be the “single largest man-made contributor to food insecurity on the continent today,” they said. “We hope that you will take leadership in responding to an international call asking you to put the brakes on this impending and present-day catastrophe.”

Ethiopia, Africa’s second-most populous nation, is leasing out land to investors to grow cash crops and generate foreign exchange. The government leased 350,096 hectares (865,106 acres) of land to 24 companies, including 10 foreign ones, according to the Agriculture Ministry’s website. Oakland puts the amount of leased land at 3.6 million hectares.

The government denies any connection between land leasing and resettlement programs. The relocation of about 20,000 households in the southwestern Gambella region last year was voluntary and aimed at providing people with access to farmland and public services, Federal Affairs Minister Shiferaw Teklemariam said in an interview in March. Read more from Bloomberg »

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