On 15 May 2019 The Guardian reported from Gedeb in southern Ethiopia, where local officials told roughly 150,000 displaced people that their shelters would be demolished and that food and medical aid would soon stop.
Most of those sheltering in Gedeo zone were ethnic Gedeos who had fled West Guji in Oromia during 2018 violence. Aid workers said the push to send them back looked like forced return under African Union and United Nations rules that require returns to be safe, voluntary, and sustainable.
Residents told Tom Gardner they had already tried going home, found burned houses, and still feared rape and killing. At least ten displaced leaders had been briefly detained after speaking against the plan, and planned protests in Dilla had been cancelled.
Kept as displacement archive, the story sits against Abiy Ahmed’s early reform image and against later official claims that IDP camps could simply be closed. It records what people said when the Ethiopian federal government pressed them to choose between hunger and fear.
Sources: The Guardian