Homes in the Gambella region of Ethiopia
Original image by flickr user pocarropilla (Creative Commons BY-NC 2.0)
Complaint submitted to World Bank Inspection Panel implicates the World Bank in serious human rights abuses carried out by the Ethiopian government through forced villagization
Anuak indigenous people claim that the World Bank-financed and administered Protection of Basic Services Project (PBS) has directly contributed to a government program of forced villagization.
Villagization plans have been implemented by Ethiopian public servants, who are paid through the World Bank-financed project. PBS has provided $1.4 billion in budget support for basic services to the government of Ethiopia since 2006.
While villagization is supposed to be a voluntary process according to the Villagization Action Plan of the Gambella regional government, people affected by villagization in Gambella have been displaced to refugee camps in Kenya and South Sudan. Individuals report instances of violence such as rape, torture in military custody and extra-judicial killing.
Gambellans who have been displaced find themselves in new villages, far from their fertile, ancestral lands, and without a means of living. Very few of the promised basic services exist in the new villages and decreased access to food and fertile land have led to cases of starvation. Meanwhile, areas from where Gambellans were forcibly removed have been allotted to investors.
Ethiopia’s villagization plan sees people in four other regions of Ethiopia being resettled as well. In total, the project calls for the resettlement of approximately 1.5 million people by 2013. Inclusive Development International has urged the Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank to not approve PBS Phase III “until a thorough and impartial investigation has been conducted by the Inspection Panel into the links between PBS and forced villagization and robust safeguards and accountability mechanisms are put in place to ensure that PBS funds are not used to harm marginalized and vulnerable Ethiopian groups.”
Additional Resources:
Ethiopian Indigenous People Demand Accountability from the World Bank for Contributing to Grave Human Rights Abuses, Inclusive Development InternationalPolicy and Legal Analysis of the Ethiopia PBS Request for Inspection, Inclusive Development International