AN OPEN LETTER TO UN AGENCIES
Sitti zone, the Somali region of Ethiopia, is already in a dire hunger crisis and teetering on the edge of outright catastrophe. At the beginning of 2019, the sporadic skirmishes between Afar & Somali-Issa pastoralists alongside the main A1 Road Djibouti/Addis Ababa become a fullscale war that subsequently caused large-scale ethnic cleansing against SomaliIssas in the western Sitti zone, at the border with the Afar Regional State.
This illegal ethnic forceful displacement of approximately 400,000 people mostly women and children was arbitrarily carried out by Ethiopian Defense Forces; Afar regional special police; Ugugumo militias, an Afar rebel group. They pushed militarily Somali-Issas herders & pastoralists more than 100 km within the Somali region state destroying and capturing first the 3 main targeted towns called Cadayti, Undufo, and Garba-Isse. Villages like Danlahelay, Allale, Bir-dheere, Madane, Alaale, and Beeyo Tamari succumbed to the same fate afterwards.
This ethnic cleansing culminated with the massacre of Garba-Isse, a town of 45,000 residents, reported on international media which took place on 24 July 2021 that took more than 400 lives lost mostly women, children, and the elderly. Since 2018 it has been reported that in Sitti zone more than 3000 people were killed and thousands have been displaced on all directions of the rest of Sitti zone and as far as Dire Dawa and Djibouti.
As a result of this ethnic cleansing, more than 400,000 Somali-Issas people have been internally displaced (IDPs) and are now scattered in districts like Ma’ayso, Erer, Afdem, and Biki situated more than 100/200 km deep inside Somali Region State. 2 Approximately half of these forcefully displaced people, mostly herders, and pastoralists are roaming around without reference points, appropriate camps or designated sites in the Somali region. There are people with special needs such as unaccompanied children traveling alone, the elderly, those with chronic diseases like Tuberculosis, and people with disabilities suffering from lack of proper care and treatment. Among these IDPs, nearly 350,000 Somali-Issa people managed to reach Afdam & Erer woreda. Those IDPs in Afdam who have mostly fled from Cadayti, Garba-isse, and Undhufo and their surrounding area can be found in the villages of Cibamadow and Cerkaal.
In Erer woreda, new IDPs are right now concentrated without assistance at Badhiweyne, Caska, Garbacaad, and Asbuli mostly in disastrous humanitarian conditions. Two years of dire drought have made the matters worse. People are stretched up to 20,000 square km without any help, an area without practicable roads and basic service access.
A shortage of food and essential basic service in this Sitti zone has triggered unprecedented public health problems. The outbreak of communicable diseases notably: diarrhea diseases, cholera, acute malnutrition, Malaria, and acute respiratory diseases affect the IDPs mostly among women and children. Children with severe acute malnutrition are at risk of death if they don’t receive therapeutic feeding assistance and immediate medical attention.
The humanitarian situation in the Sitti zone (Somali Region) is on the brink to get even worse if proper healthcare agencies do not intervene soon. Right now, more than 400,000 inhabitants need emergency medical services, food and nutrition, shelter, and special protection for the most vulnerable as well as other core relief items such as blankets, sleeping mats, clean water services, and emergency shelters.
Furthermore, these people need urgent emergency essential kits such as jerry cans, blankets, plastic sheets, solar lamps, mosquito nets, sleeping mats, kitchen sets, and hygiene kits. Unless emergency food rations and kits are delivered immediately, mass starvation and famine will follow. There is still a chance to avert imminent disaster and save thousands through the actions of UN agencies by now.
Thus, we are strongly asking UN agencies (UNHCR, WFP, UNICEF, WHO & OCHA) to intervene as quickly as possible in accordance with your respective mandates. 3 In addition, the host community, and the diaspora have been striving with their sacred resource since April 2021 for the IDPs in the Sitti zone without receiving relief assistance from any humanitarian organizations.
Lastly, if nothing is done during the coming weeks another humanitarian disaster will occur in Ethiopia.
