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The Omo Valley tribes A massive hydroelectric dam threatens the tribes of the Lower Omo River The tribes have lived in this area for centuries and have developed techniques to survive in a challenging environment.  They have not been consulted about the dam and stand to lose their livelihoods based on the river’s natural flood cycle.
The Karo (or Kara), with a population of about 1000 – 1500 live on the east banks of the Omo River in south Ethiopia. Here, a Karo mother sits with her children.© Eric Lafforgue/Survival
A massive hydroelectric dam threatens the tribes of the Lower Omo River
The tribes have lived in this area for centuries and have developed techniques to survive in a challenging environment.
They have not been consulted about the dam and stand to lose their livelihoods based on the river’s natural flood cycle.
The Lower Omo River in south west Ethiopia is home to eight different tribes whose population is about 200,000.
They have lived there for centuries.
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| Suri boy from Ethiopia’s Lower Omo Valley. Violent land grabs are devastating the tribe. © Survival |
Survival has received disturbing reports from members of several tribes in Ethiopia’s Lower Omo Valley, which describe how the government is destroying their crops to force them to move off their land into designated resettlement areas.
Those most affected by the land grabs are Suri, Bodi and Mursi pastoralists, and the Kwegu hunter-gatherer people.
Many families are now desperate as they have no sorghum, and their cattle grazing land is also being rapidly destroyed as the government continues to lease out their land for sugar cane and oil palm plantations.
A Mursi explains what is happening:
A Mursi woman speaks out against the destruction of the tribe’s crops. Her identity has been hidden to protect her from reprisals.
Some Bodi communities are already being moved in to camps against their will. A Bodi man said, ‘They are taking our land by force. The bulldozer even cleared the gardens where our crops were growing. They went right through where our sorghum was growing.’
The Mursi have been told they must sell their cattle, and will be moved to the resettlement camps by the end of this year. One Mursi woman said, ‘The other day I went to the Omo River. I went to my grain stores to get the grain and it was gone. My grain stores had been thrown away (by bulldozers). I don’t like what they are doing. When I went I just cried. Our grain stores were gone. Now we will have big problems. We don’t know what to do. Maybe we will die.’
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| Karo and Hamar children bring their cattle to drink by the Omo River. © Survival |
Access to the Omo River is being blocked as the government continues to clear land and build roads to the sugar cane plantations, which are part of the state run Kuraz Sugar Project.
The government is also leasing large tracts of tribal land to national and foreign investors. To the west of the Omo National Park, the Suri are protesting against a Malaysian company which is planting oil palm on some of their best cattle grazing land.
According to one Suri man, ‘The government went with soldiers and for two weeks tried to prevent the Suri from planting crops. This was to force the people to be hungry and accept moving into the resettlement site. Most of the Suri are afraid to go to the place where they plant crops. Only a few went. In one village near the Malaysian plantation, three houses were burned down, with grain stores inside. This was done by the plantation workers.’
Human Rights Watch recently launched a damning new report ‘What Will Happen if Hunger Comes?’ which documents how government security forces are driving communities to relocate from their lands through violence and intimidation, threatening their entire way of life with no compensation or choice of alternative livelihoods.
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| Young Mursi shepherds looking after livestock, Ethiopia. © Ingetje Tadros/ingetjetadros.com |
However the future of these tribes lies in the balance. A massive hydro-electric dam, Gibe III, is under construction on the Omo.
When completed it will destroy a fragile environment and the livelihoods of the tribes, which are closely linked to the river and its annual flood.
Salini Costruttori, an Italian company, started construction work on the Gibe III dam at the end of 2006, and has already built a third of it.
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| The Karo (or Kara), with a population of about 1000 – 1500 live on the east banks of the Omo River in south Ethiopia. Here, a Karo mother sits with her children. © Eric Lafforgue/Survival |
China’s largest bank, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), has agreed to fund part of the construction of the dam.
After carrying out preliminary evaluation studies, both the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) announced in 2010 that they were no longer considering funding Gibe III.
In March 2011, the Ethiopian government withdrew its request for aid credit from the Italian government. The request had raised great concern amongst many Italian NGOs, which urged the Italian Foreign Minister not to support the controversial dam.
Survival and various regional and international organisations believe that the Gibe III Dam will have catastrophic consequences for the tribes of the Omo River, who already live close to the margins of life in this dry and challenging area.
Tribal song from the Omo Valley. Recording by Daniel Sullivan.
We are calling on potential funders not to support this project until a complete and independent social and environmental impact study is carried out and the tribal peoples have been fully consulted and given their free informed and prior consent.
 Download a letter from Survival to the African Development Bank’s executive directors (PDF)
 Download a second letter from Survival to the African Development Bank’sexecutive directors (PDF)
 Download Africa Resources Working Group commentary (PDF)
 Download International Rivers Factsheet (PDF)
Act now to help the Omo Valley tribes
- Write a letter to the Prime Minister of Ethiopia urging him to reconsider the project.
- Donate to Survival’s campaign for the Omo Valley Tribes and other campaigns.
- Sign the petition to stop the Gibe III dam.
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