December 21, 2015By Bob Koigi
Behind towering acacia trees (click here) that provide much sought after shade in the sunbaked landscape of southern Ethiopia lies the story of a long quest for lasting peace by communities at the Kenya-Ethiopia border, led most recently by a group of community elders. The region has suffered from decades of longstanding conflict over limited resources that have claimed thousands of lives and displaced tens of thousands of families, and which have recently been exacerbated by drought and changing weather patterns...
...But the conflict has taken a new and complex twist in recent years as rains have failed and weather vagaries have taken a toll on pastoralists’ way of life. The 2011 and 2012 drought in the Horn of Africa, for example, impacted more than 13 million people, particularly pastoralist communities, and contributed to an intense food crisis in the region. Dwindling land for pasture, coupled with lack of water, is pushing pastoralists from their homes to new frontiers perceived to be resource rich. Climate change is likely to continue exacerbating challenges in the region — in East Africa, global warming is predicted to cause more severe and frequent droughts, increased desertification, and more intense extreme weather events....
Behind towering acacia trees (click here) that provide much sought after shade in the sunbaked landscape of southern Ethiopia lies the story of a long quest for lasting peace by communities at the Kenya-Ethiopia border, led most recently by a group of community elders. The region has suffered from decades of longstanding conflict over limited resources that have claimed thousands of lives and displaced tens of thousands of families, and which have recently been exacerbated by drought and changing weather patterns...
...But the conflict has taken a new and complex twist in recent years as rains have failed and weather vagaries have taken a toll on pastoralists’ way of life. The 2011 and 2012 drought in the Horn of Africa, for example, impacted more than 13 million people, particularly pastoralist communities, and contributed to an intense food crisis in the region. Dwindling land for pasture, coupled with lack of water, is pushing pastoralists from their homes to new frontiers perceived to be resource rich. Climate change is likely to continue exacerbating challenges in the region — in East Africa, global warming is predicted to cause more severe and frequent droughts, increased desertification, and more intense extreme weather events....
