Day: June 23, 2022

DAKAR – The number of people affected by a food and nutrition crisis in Cabo Verde has reached an all-time high in June 2022, with 181,000 women, men and children facing acute hunger. This represents 32 percent of the total population and marks a massive reversal of hard-won gains in food security and nutrition in recent years forcing the Government to declare a social and economic national emergency on 20 June. If not urgently addressed, this crisis will severely disrupt food access and agricultural production, putting more lives at risk as the country depends largely on imports to meet its food needs

The current food and nutrition crisis results from a combination of factors including years of drought which have led to significant drops in food production and grazing land losses, and the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to its heavy dependence on tourism – a sector accounting for more than 60 percent of its gross domestic product and providing employment to almost 70 percent of the population – Cabo Verde’s economy has been upended by the pandemic. In only two years, the country experienced a 78 percent drop in tourism revenues – with severe consequences on its national economic performance.

The situation has been further exacerbated by the ripple effect of the crisis in Ukraine which is causing an upheaval in global food and energy markets, disrupting food supply chains and sparking sharp food prices rises, which disproportionately affect the poorest.

“The current levels of food insecurity are unprecedented. Unless appropriate measures are urgently taken, the local agricultural production, livestock and the livelihoods of rural communities are under severe threat”, said Dr Gouantoueu Robert Guei, Sub-Regional Coordinator for West Africa and FAO representative in Senegal.

In April 2022, a joint FAO, WFP and Cabo Verde Government assessment mission in the Archipelago found that vulnerable families in some rural areas are reducing the number of meals and eating less, from three meals a day to sometimes one meal a day, as food stocks are dwindling, and food prices reach record highs in the country. Furthermore, farmers are selling off their livestock, reducing milk and cheese production – and in turn reducing the consumption of these important foods among children. With a 34 percent rainfall deficit last season, the country recorded the highest drop in cereal production in the region in 2021, with a worrisome 93 percent cut in production.

“The current situation in Cabo Verde highlights the fragility of the food and social protection systems in coastal countries of West Africa. It is critical that we come together now to support the government in maintaining essential social safety net programmes and meeting the immediate food and nutrition needs of the most vulnerable communities,” said Elvira Pruscini, WFP’s Deputy Regional Director for West Africa.

West Africa’s first ever nationally owned school feeding programme in Cabo Verde is also at risk of being put on hold due to the government’s inability to supply all required goods. The programme supports vulnerable families at risk of food insecurity and helps to prevent a reversal in school enrolment and attendance rates. With the world facing a year of unprecedented humanitarian needs, the Government is now calling on all partners for immediate support.

In order to avert any further depletion of livelihoods and deterioration of the food and nutrition situation in Cabo Verde, WFP and FAO require US$15 million to support a two-year Government response plan aiming to reinforce national safety net programmes such as school meals, support resilience-building activities, and boost agricultural production.

Source: World Food Programme

On June 19th, reports began to emerge of a mass atrocity in the Ethiopian region of Oromia committed against members of the Amhara ethnic group. This latest attack fits into a broader pattern of ethnic violence in Ethiopia since the outbreak of civil war in November 2020.

Laetitia Bader is the Horn of Africa Director at Human Rights Watch. She contributed to a joint Human Rights Watch-Amnesty International report titled “We Will Erase You from This Land: Crimes Against Humanity and Ethnic Cleansing in Ethiopia’s Western Tigray Zone.” The report finds evidence of an organized campaign of ethnic cleansing against Tigrayan people, which is occurring in the context of Ethiopia’s ongoing civil war.

What is the State of Ethnic Violence in Ethiopia Today?

Laetitia Bader [00:02:59] It’s been very difficult to get information from that area. Now, Western Oromia has actually been the site of a lot of violence for almost three years now. There has been a very abusive counterinsurgency operation by both federal governments, but also regional government forces there. There have been other bouts of very large-scale attacks on minority communities, notably Amhara communities in Western Oromia in the last few years. So, these are unfortunately trends which have been happening for some time. This incident and the little information which has come out so far suggests that this is really a horrific and very large-scale attack, but it is happening in a context in which civilians, and this is both the Oromo population, but also the Amhara minority communities in Oromia, have been caught very much between a rock and a hard place between armed groups and also security forces. This is happening at a time where the events there have really fallen off the radar of the world. People have been ignoring Oromia more generally for the last two years, as a lot of the attention has been for very real reasons as well, on the very serious abuses which have been happening in the context of the conflict and in northern Ethiopia but the suffering of the communities and a lot of fear among the communities there has been very real. One of the trends we have repeatedly highlighted has been a context of impunity for bouts of previous violence against minority communities, but also attacks on the Oromo community there by security forces and also by armed groups there as well.

WHAT HAPPENED IN THE RECENT ATTACK OF AMHARA PEOPLE IN OROMIA?

Mark L. Goldberg [00:05:12] So if indeed this was a massacre of Amhara civilians perpetrated by Oromo armed groups, which is what is being reported and alleged at this point, it would fit into a broader pattern in the region.

Laetitia Bader [00:05:31] Yes. I mean, there has been a complexity to some of the attacks on the Amhara minority communities there in the past so it’s not the first large scale attack which has been blamed on the Oromo Liberation Army. They have denied involvement. This isn’t the first time. They’ve denied involvement in these abuses in the past, but there is very little information coming out of what happens there and so the complexity is key. And ensuring that there is a context in which there can be independent investigations is so critical as well because narratives play such a key part in shaping the mindsets of many communities. And I think making sure that there is a space in which you get to the truth is absolutely key to ensure there aren’t new cycles of grievances. So yes, it does fit into previous trends, but there have also been other types of attacks involving other actors. What is very clear is that civilians have not been protected. This is an area where for a long-time communication was actually shut off in early 2020. This was really at the time when COVID was really taking off and a lot of our concerns was that key public health messaging, because the government would shut off the communications in that area where they were undertaking often quite abusive counterinsurgency operations, comms had been shut off. And so not only was there very little information coming out on what was happening, but also communities there were not receiving critical security, but also health information at the time. So, this is this is a region within a region which has been neglected and civilians have paid a high price as a result.

Source: UN Dispatch