The Ethiopian Somali Dynamic Bearings of a Simmering Statutory Crisis RL Vol XII No 277 MMXVIII

The Ethiopian Somali Dynamic

Bearings of a Simmering

Statutory Crisis

Public Lecture - RL Vol XII No 277 MMXVIII

Costantinos Berhutesfa Costantinos, PhD

Professor of Public Policy & Sustainable Institutional Reforms

https://addisababa.academia.edu/CostyCostantinos

Abstract

          In the Somali Region, pastoralists, agro-pastoralists, farmers and traders – have suffered a series of livelihood shocks in contemporary years, some natural, others political (violent conflicts). Unfavourable polices towards the region by successive regimes in the country’s political history. Because of these multiple shocks, and because rainfall in the Horn of Africa has been low in recent years, questions are being asked about the sustainability of livelihood in a predominantly pastoralist area. The Government for instance, is advocating rural sedentarization of pastoralists as one long-term option, while many question the government’s legitimacy to intervene in changing people’s lifestyle. The purpose here is to develop such an understanding and look for critical answers to the genuine causes of underdevelopment in the region. This is the foundation to come up with sustainable resolution to the backwardness in the Region. The study will help to present this evidence to policy-makers as an input to their strategic decision-making. Using a descriptive research design based on secondary data, it allows the research to describe the behaviour of the issue understudy without influencing it in any way. Under-development in Somali Region is affected by processes of social change, political instability, drought triggers livelihood crises, but the underlying causes of underdevelopment are the combination of social, political and natural.

            While the region has witnessed some form of stability since the attack on oil and gas exploration teams that killed 72 Ethiopian and Chinese engineers and works, new developments in the Somali region have culminated in the arrest of the former president Abdi Mohamed Omar, accused of human rights. The following discussion may help shape the debate. With the opposition parties now officially in Ethiopia, can one expect a negotiated peace in the Somali Region? With the newfound oil and gas wealth, what is the future of the Somali Region? What are the implication of the arrest former president of Abdi Mohamed Omar, the region? Now that Eritrea and Somalia have made peace, would AL Shabaab move in into the Somali Region of Ethiopia?

Key words: Somali Region, Ethiopia, human rights, petroleum find, self-determination,

See lecture here or  https://www.academia.edu/37568141/The_Ethiopian_Somali_Dynamic_Bearings_of_a_Simmering_Statutory_Crisis