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They were about 16 women, scattered on half of the
road on the highway not far from the town of wassa,
276Km south of Addis Abeba; when cars were passing,
they tried to stop drivers with loud chanting and
waving of their long sticks. They were not beggars;
a mix of young and old, these married women were
performing a ritual known in the Oromo culture as
“Atette Sera”, a spiritual communications with God
so that rain could come to their village.
They said that they had walked all the way from Toga
Woraresa, an area located between the towns of
Shashemne and Awassa. This area had not experienced
rain for the past two months. Thus, they performed
the ritual throughout the week, hoping that they
could collect 40 to 50 Br each day from drivers
passing by, in order to buy goats to sacrifice to
God, until such time that they would see clouds
hovering in their village’s sky.
“God will hear our prayers,” said Kalele Edao, a
group leader.
Friday, March 21, was their lucky day; they had
collected 40 Br before it got dark and they were
pleased to see that the sky over head was covered
by a cloud. Kalele and the other women saw cloud as
a good sign that pleasant days were ahead of them.
There would be rain, and their cattle could find
something green to graze.
In the past few months, they had watched their
cattle become weaker and weaker by the day. They had
witnessed the deaths of their neighbors’ cattle.
Their stocks of grain and cereal had become almost
empty. They foresee the worst, should it fail to
rain in the next few weeks and water their dried up
land. They are not alone in their gloomy forecast.
Reports are emerging from international
organizations alarmed by the combined effects of a
strong La Nina weather condition and
the cooling of Western Indian Ocean waters; both
developments lead to a forecast that there will be
below normal rainfall during the March to May rainy
season in countries along the Horn of Africa,
including Ethiopia. According to a Food Security
Update for East Africa, released in February 2008 by
the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID), these environmental
developments have consequences such as unusual
livestock migration as well as significant
deterioration of livestock body conditions,
negatively impacting both on livestock production
and their market value in these countries.
“The March to May rains have the widest geographic
coverage of any seasonal rainfall in the region,”
says the report. “But most importantly, they are
very crucial for both livestock and crop production
in the eastern equatorial parts of the region,
covering Somalia, most of Kenya, southern and
eastern Ethiopia and parts of Djibouti, where they
contribute 50pc or more of the annual rains
received.”
In Ethiopia, reports reveal that the food security
situation in Oromia, Somali, Gambella and Southern
regional states has deteriorated in the past two
months. Kalele’s village is one of the most affected
areas in the southern parts of the country.
Nevertheless, it can hardly be described as
depressing when compared to Borena area, one of the
17 zones in the Oromia Regional State.
According to reports from rapid assessment conducted
by experts from zonal offices and non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) operating in the area, such as
SOS Sahel and GOAL Borena, the drought situation in
Borena has undoubtedly increased in its size and
scale since January 2008. For instance, the number
of needy population increased from 88,000 people
then to 314,907 now, according to their findings.
They attribute this to the poor rains recorded in
the past two rainy seasons: the main one, Ganna,
extended from March to May, and the showery rain in
Hageya, lasting a long from September to
November. As a result, grazing lands have turned to
reddish dust and water ponds, wells and boreholes
have dried up. Lack of pasture and insufficient
water has caused the death of a significant number
of cattle, almost daily.
In February 2008 alone, 14,334 livestock perished in
Dillo, Dire, Dahas, Teltele, Arero, Miyo, Moyale and
Yabello, weredas all found in Borena, according to
United Nation’s Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The poor condition of livestock and their subsequent
deaths also led to the malnourishment of children
and the elderly. Shortages in food availability,
combined with unhealthy water sources, also caused
outbreaks of diseases in some of these areas. There
are reports of people dying from epidemics of
meningitis and measles.
There is perhaps no other place than Borena Zone to
demonstrate the most visible but ghastly effects of
the drought. It covers 48.75skm, with a vast area of
semi-arid lands. Decades ago, drought used to occur
in every eight to 10 year cycle. Then it was
narrowed to five-years; in recent years, the gap
declined to two years. Some reports claim that
Borena Zone has lost 75pc of its herds of livestock
during the 2001 drought. After four years, another
disastrous drought hit the area, leading to
considerable livestock deaths, incidences of human
diseases, malnutrition, migration, and overall
depletion of the traditional coping mechanism of
the people there.
Kotu Dukicha, 80, is a resident of Melbana Kebele,
in Miyo Wereda of Borena Zone. He has witnessed so
many of these droughts; but he says the amount of
rain he has seen this year was the lowest of all the
other years.
“I have never seen such rain scarcity in my whole
life,” he told Fortune.
Borena’s average rainfall is about 650mm; however,
Kotu’s village hardly received this amount during
the past four years. Experts fear that the gap
between the recurrent droughts is increasingly
narrowing every year. They also see the scale and
extent of drought this year as different from the
one in 2006.
“The drought has seriously affected the pastoralist
weredas of our zone,” Geda Robe, vice administrator
of Borena Zone, told Fortune. “In a
significant way, it had affected six weredas a few
months back, but now it has spread to 10 weredas.”
Cattle Are Dying
Kalcha Waka, 30, lives in Melbana Keble of Miyo
Wereda, one of the eight severely affected areas in
the zone. One morning a week ago, he was helplessly
looking at his dying cow, his eyes filled with
sorrow and he was crushed. Having lost the ability
to walk, two of Kalcha’s cows were stuck in one
place, glued to something on the fenced barn. Just a
few meters from the barn, the skins of six cattle
were fastened to the ground, so that they could dry.
After counting the dried skins kept in his hut, it
was clear that he had lost more than 30 of his
livestock in the past two months, although he
claimed to have lost 80. It takes stamina to
withstand the foul smell that permeates the air
should there be an attempt to count the 45 or so
dead cattle littered on the ground behind his hut.
“I had bought a stock of hay for 4,600 Br to save
them,” Kalecha told Fortune. “I brought a
veterinary kit to cure them from any possible
diseases; however, I could not succeed.”
Kalecha’s 80 cattle were among the 1,413 livestock
registered as dead in Miyo Wereda. While increasing
by the day, the number of livestock death in all
affected weredas of Borena Zone has risen to 17,204
animals up until the first week of March 2008,
disclosed a report produced by the Rapid Assessment
Team dispatched to the areas.
Massive cattle death in Borena area was one of the
issues that was raised during a debate held on March
18, 2008, when Prime Minister Meles Zenawi delivered
his administration’s six-month performance report to
Parliament. Opposition MPs criticized the Prime
Minister for his failure to incorporate the drought
situation and its effects in his report, which fully
focused on economic issues.
Meles admitted that there is a water shortage and
problems associated with it in the southern and
eastern parts of the country. However, he rejected
assertions by opposition MPs that drought has caused
the death of humans and cattle in some parts of the
country, including Borena.
“Complaints about deaths of people and cattle are
false,” Meles told Parliament.
Indeed, there is no officially reported human death
toll due to famine to date. Nevertheless, roaming
around the weredas of Borena Zone reveals an area
overwhelmed by carcasses. Every other day, dogs and
vultures enjoy a new addition of such dead bodies.
In some places, the villagers try to collect the
carcasses in one place, and in a few locations they
are tried of burning them. For pastoralists in
Borena, the scene of someone pulling dead bodies of
cattle is hardly startling.
Eyya Eroro, a resident of Denebela Bedena Kebele in
Dire Wereda, has been doing it frequently in the
past three months. After pulling the first few
bodies, he had the energy to drag them far away from
his village; later, nine carcasses lay on the bush
only few minutes walk from his hut. Many of the
other of his 121 cattle were found dead after a
futile attempt to search for pasture.
Eyya now fears for the survival of his remaining 10
cattle; he wonders where he will get food for his
eight children and two wives should they all die.
“I could get no milk,” Eyya said. “I only have had
tea and roasted maize since this morning.”
When he started to talk about what he had eaten on
Saturday afternoon, March 22, his wives and other
women surrounded him smiled, but were embarrassed.
Milk being plenty in their normal life, calling tea
with roasted maize as food appeared to the women
rather a humiliation. Had there been a guest
visiting them a few months before the drought, the
women would have shown how they proportionally mix
the flour of maize with milk before they prepare
their favorite traditional food, Shumo. Now
such is a luxury to even think about. Whether it is
roasted, baked for dough or prepared as porridge for
children, maize is the only food available in their
houses. However, Eyya see that purchasing maize from
the local market has become unaffordable.
“We are buying a quintal of maize for 300 Br,” Eyya
told Fortune. “The price has doubled after
the drought.”
With prices going up, Eyya and Kalecha were forced
to sell their cattle in order to get enough money to
purchase maize. |
