Can the afar people sustain current ordeal? 
Eighteen years and counting there is no end in sight, no hope of relief from the onslaught, killings, disappearance, the exodus, simply too much for any given people to endure. Unfortunately, the afar population have been in this situation before, A nation with unequal history, people of unyielding resolve, bravery and freewill, Resisted, fought and survived many occupations that fall on their shores, furious fighters in nature, but never the aggressors. Where do afar go from here? Through out the Afar history Every occupier used similar approach of suppressing the indigenous afar, To the most part they have recognized the afar as a people ,the Land, the culture and psyche, from Ottoman Empire, Mussolini, to Haile Silase all the way to last regime of Mengistu before the current one. They have used policy of carrot and a stick when it comes to afar, not the current afewerki regime, doesn’t recognize the afar rights as a people; they only use the stick of brutality. Not to underestimate the impact of any of those occupations earlier; in fact, all of them had devastating impact on development and progress on afar as a people, but afar always have found a window of hope and have carried on to survive. However, the situations are extremely difficult and very hard to sustain today .If you look at the afar society today; they measure at the bottom of the society on every scale. 90 % on illiteracy , The worst infant mortality , most impoverished and extreme malnutrition , even though the foot of Eritrea’s map(fig,01) as afar call it ,belongs to them , “Dankaliya” as it was known to Italians at the time of Mussolini, the coast line from Massawa to Assab and beyond was well functioning autonomous land under afar rule. Eritrea can not walk and stand to be a nation with out the blessing and recognition of afar people. Malnutrition that are created by suppressive system of afewerki’s restrictions on the movement of people with freewill and pride have become the root cause of now less than 40 years life expectancy , the diseases that accompanies malnutrition is killing the pregnant afar women and their babies. In old days those who can not get the medical care for these problems would seek the care in neighbouring countries now that is gone. The afars live and lived in one of the harshest climate for anyone or human being to live for centuries. The combination of the extreme climate and repression of freedom of movements for people and their animals that know no boundary is unconscionable to comprehend for any given society let alone for nomadic indigenous society like those of afar. It is like putting someone in prison and not feed him. This Regime has created the largest refugee crisis in afar history, were 25% of afar population (400,000) have fled the country in to neighbouring countries. There are reports of relocation of other ethnicities into the heartland of afar area to fill in the now almost vacant afar land. Isayas’s regime is brewing hatred and providing a fuel to the fire of ethnic conflicts, further dashing any hope of reconciliation and mutual coexistence. For a tiny new aspiring country in north eastern Africa, which Clinton called a new breed of Democracy, which was full of hope and prosperity for all it’s citizens ,instead this regime has picked up the gun against all it’s neighbours to resolve any disputes starting with Yemen over worthless island, With Sudan, Ethiopia who was instrumental on their independence from Old Ethiopia, and lastly a tiny Djibouti which has afar population on each side of the border leaving the already compromised afar population to be further torn apart and in an immediate danger. You asked, Can the afar people sustain this ordeal? I will leave that one for the historians, but I won’t count the Afar people out Just yet.My hope is for international community to intervene immediately, for the sake of every citizen and the entire region, as bad as Somalia is, we sure don’t want to see Eritrea to come in to the picture. By Humed Huley Kungsvinger, NorwayFig,01 Afar –Dankaliya (from Massawa to Assab) |
