This village, Bildak, in Gambella region was quickly abandoned in May 2011 by its new residents because there was no water source for their cattle. The World Bank is accused of funding forced resettlement of 45,000 households in the area. (Photo: © 2011 HRW)
Investigating
Ethiopia Refuses to Cooperate With Probe on World Bank Funding
Bloomberg News
By William Davison
Ethiopia’s government said it won’t cooperate with a probe into whether the World Bank violated its own policies by funding a program in which thousands of people were allegedly relocated to make way for agriculture investors.
Ethnic Anuak people in Ethiopia’s southwestern Gambella region and rights groups including Human Rights Watch last year accused the Washington-based lender of funding a program overseen by soldiers to forcibly resettle 45,000 households. The Inspection Panel of the World Bank, an independent complaints mechanism, began an investigation in October into the allegations, which donors and the government have denied.
“We are not going to cooperate with the Inspection Panel,” Getachew Reda, a spokesman for Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, said in a phone interview on May 22. “To an extent that there’s a need for cooperation, it’s not going to be with the Inspection Panel, but with the World Bank”
Read more at Bloomberg News.
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Related:
Ethiopia: Forced Relocation Bring Hunger, Hardship (HRW)
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