By William Davison
(Bloomberg) — Dozens of people have been killed in the
western Ethiopia region of Gambella during fighting between Nuer
and Anuak groups that involved local security forces, an
official said.
Weapons from neighboring South Sudan’s two-year civil war
are contributing to the insecurity in Gambella, which is also
hosting more than 280,000 mainly Nuer refugees from that nation,
according to Okello Obang, administrator of Itang district.
After a September murder in Itang, retaliatory violence spread
in recent weeks and involved the razing of villages, Okello said
by phone on Monday.
“A lot of people are expected to have died, but we don’t
know the exact number,” he said. Central government spokesman
Getachew Reda said by phone that at least 14 people died in
fighting between Nuer and Anuak that took on an “ethnic
dimension” and the situation is now under control.
Gambella, which has a history of low-intensity conflict, is
divided into administrative zones run by the Anuak, Nuer and
Mazenger communities, while Itang is a separate, ethnically
mixed area. The sparsely populated federal region has been the
focus of foreign and domestic agricultural investments since
about 2010. Saudi Star Agricultural Development Plc, an
Ethiopian company owned by billionaire Mohamed al-Amoudi, is
involved with a rice farm in Gambella.

Serious Fighting

The serious fighting that followed “petty quarrels” may be
related to Anuak anxiety over the refugee influx and a
perception that Nuer increasingly dominate the regional
government, said Dereje Feyissa Dori, a federalism expert at
Addis Ababa University.
The Anuak population was recorded as around 64,000 at the
last census in 2007. South Sudanese political actors involved in
a power struggle could be stoking ethnic tensions in Gambella,
he said by phone from Addis Ababa on Monday. Efforts are being