A silent humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in Ethiopia’s Somali Region — particularly in the West Sitti Zone — where ethnic Somalis have endured years of violence, displacement, and systematic dispossession. For more than seven years, entire communities have been targeted and uprooted, while the world remains alarmingly indifferent.
A Seven-Year Campaign of Displacement and Destruction
Since January 2019, coordinated operations by elements of the Ethiopian federal government, the Afar regional administration, and affiliated militias have resulted in the mass displacement and killing of Somali civilians in western Sitti.
Three towns — Garbaissa, Udhufo, and Aydaytu — along with 11 surrounding villages and vast tracts of pastoral land, have been forcefully seized.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), these attacks have claimed more than 6,000 lives and displaced over 200,000 people — the majority being women, children, and pastoralists. The violence has destroyed 85 water boreholes and decimated grazing lands that sustain the pastoral economy of the Somali population.
Ethnic Targeting and Media Silence
Afar regional forces and allied militias have carried out these operations with near-total impunity. Civilians have been targeted solely on the basis of their Somali identity. Ethiopian state and private media have further fueled this crisis by portraying Somalis as outsiders or security threats — a narrative that justifies displacement and normalizes persecution.
Along the strategic A1 highway, which connects Awash to Djibouti, Somali families, traders, and religious leaders have been evicted, while members of other ethnic groups — including the Amhara and Gurage — continue to live and work without similar harassment. This selective persecution underscores a campaign of ethnic engineering, not mere conflict.
Neglect and Complicity of Authorities
Displaced Somali civilians now live scattered across remote corners of Sitti Zone, Dire Dawa, and even Djibouti, receiving little to no humanitarian support.
In 2023, when the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) was finally deployed, it was not to protect victims but to restrict their movement and block access to life-sustaining resources like water and grazing land. Witnesses have accused federal troops of human rights abuses against the very people they were meant to protect.
Even more concerning is the silence—or complicity—of Somali regional authorities in Jigjiga. Instead of defending their constituents, some officials have attempted to legitimize the Afar occupation and even punished victims for protesting. Reports indicate that Somali police have arbitrarily detained residents who spoke out against these atrocities.
A Systematic Campaign of Erasure
For generations, the Somali people have lived in West Sitti, contributing to Ethiopia’s trade, culture, and economy. Yet they have been excluded from political representation for decades — denied the right to vote in six consecutive national elections. Their constitutional rights to equality, land ownership, and security have been systematically violated.
Over the last seven years, these communities have endured a deliberate campaign of ethnic cleansing and demographic manipulation. Towns once thriving with Somali life are now militarized zones, and families are forced to flee ancestral lands that have sustained them for centuries.
The federal government’s silence, coupled with the Somali regional administration’s inaction, has emboldened perpetrators and deepened public despair.
A Call for Urgent International Action
The situation in West Sitti is more than a local tragedy — it is a test of the international community’s moral responsibility. The silence of global institutions has allowed a campaign of slow, systematic ethnic cleansing to continue unchecked.
We urgently call upon the United Nations, African Union, European Union, United States, and all international human rights organizations to:
- Launch an independent investigation into human rights violations in West Sitti Zone.
- Demand immediate protection for displaced Somali civilians and restoration of their land and property.
- Hold accountable those responsible for ethnic targeting and forced displacement.
- Pressure the Ethiopian government to respect constitutional guarantees of regional sovereignty and minority rights.
If urgent action is not taken, the Somali communities of West Sitti may vanish within a generation — their culture, land, and history erased from Ethiopia’s social and political fabric.