Citizens ‘Trapped’ in Ethiopia Villages

Issa Hussein

1 May 2011

Nairobi — Two thousand, six hundred and eighty-four Kenyans are living as refugees in Ethiopia, the truth commission has been told.

The team heard in Moyale on Sunday that the refugees from the Borana community fled the country during the Turbi Massacre six years ago.

They are hosted by the UNHCR and Ethiopian government at Magatho and Dilo refugee camps.

Presenting a memorandum to the commission at Moyale Boys Secondary School, the refugees told of six years of deplorable life.

“We were neglected by our own government, which felt we are not better than goats, since when a goat is lost, the shepherd looks for it.

“Our leaders could not give us that honour. We made several pleas, but it is now six years, and we are yet to be resettled,” remarked Mr Didi Koroma.

They said they fled after the government failed to protect them and their livestock from attacks by a rival community in Marsabit.

“We asked for protection several times, but we were instead referred to chiefs who planned and executed the killings forcing us to flee to Ethiopia,” Mr Koroma said.

He said they received several delegations from the government, who kept on pledging to help them return home, but did nothing afterwards.

The refugees fled from North Horr, Huri Hills, Baqaqa, Dukana and Balesi and are now settled in Ethiopia, some 90km from Kenya.

They pleaded to be resettled in Kenya to enable them continue with their nomadic lifestyle.

In the memorandum, the refugees told the commission that UNHCR had threatened to stop hosting them as their funding period was about to end and Kenya was a stable nation.

The Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission chairperson Tecla Namachanja said the government was mandated to resettle Kenyan refugees since the country was able to provide protection to its citizens.

She thanked the UNHCR and the Ethiopian government for hosting the refugees, who fled the inter-clan fighting.

The commission, on its second day of hearings in Moyale, also heard that Ethiopian security forces hunting down Oromo Liberation Front fighters, had unleashed terror on residents.

Mr Guyo Liban, an elder, told the commission that a woman selling vegetables in Moyale market was shot dead by Ethiopian forces, who accused her of selling food to “enemies”.

“Why should OLF come to Kenya and set up camps to fight Ethiopian government? Can’t the Kenyan government guard its border to get rid of the militia?” posed Mr Liban.

Meanwhile, the Sakuye community in Moyale wants the government to bring back members of their community, who fled to Somalia during the Shifta war.

They said their origins were in Kenya and they deserved to be treated as other citizens.

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