I urge the Government to stop conceding to foreigners the natural resources and the national reserves of the peoples of Ethiopia, and to begin helping Ethiopian farmers preserve and farm their lands organically.
"Huge tracts of unutilised agricultural land are available" writes the Ambassador of Ethiopia to the UK
One can only speculate why the secretive government of Ethiopia is giving away the country’s fertile land to foreign agribusinesses.
"The reports claiming that the Government of Ethiopia has reduced the land concession given to Karuturi Global, are completely baseless," says Sai Ramakrishna Karuturi, Founder & MD, Karuturi Global.
Ethiopia's Mursi tribe says they were imprisoned and tortured to protect Chinese sugar plantations.
The report uncovers the truth behind a reported massacre of 30 to 50 Suri people in May 2012 near a 30,000-hectare Malaysian-owned Koka plantation.
The construction of a huge dam in Ethiopia and the introduction of large-scale agricultural businesses has been controversial, and finding out what local people think can be hard.
Several investors with large agricultural leases are being investigated for illegal activities, including corruption, environmental destruction, and failure to uphold the terms of their contracts
Governments of Ethiopia, UK, US and Germany sign land country partnership to work together to improve rural land governance for economic growth and to protect the land rights of local citizens in Ethiopia.
Anuak organisations, with the strong support of international civil society, call on the governments of Ethiopia and India to cease negotiations with Karuturi Global Ltd and to ensure that the company fully exits Gambela and other parts of Ethiopia.
"Galaxy of diplomats" in attendance for the inauguration of Mr Sai Ramakrishna Karuturi, Managing Director of Karuturi Global Ltd, as an Honorary Consul of Ethiopia in Bangalore.
Domestic and foreign investors are expected to grow sugar cane and other cash crops on a large-scale in the south of Ethiopia, an area known for its numerous indigenous tribes.
The Ethiopian government has embarked on a large-scale land investment policy that has led to the displacement and forced eviction of Ethiopia’s most marginalized traditional societies.
A Survival investigation has uncovered alarming evidence that some of Ethiopia’s most productive farmland is being stolen from local tribes and leased to foreign companies to grow and export food – while thousands of its citizens starve during the devastating drought.
The two months we spent in the Amhara and Oromia regions of Ethiopia, surveying smallholders and profiling large-scale commercial farms, left us with a different impression.
Video: Mr. Meles Zenawi, the Prime Minister of Ethiopia, discusses his government’s land grab policy, where the federal government has taken over millions of hectares of farmland from the States of Benishangul, Gambela and Oromia to distribute it to the so-called investors.
As Kenya prepares to declare a national emergency in response to food shortages, the government's agricultural policies have come under growing scrutiny. A proposed deal to lease land to the government of Qatar for agricultural use has received particular attention.
Analytical evaluation of effect of current land grabbing policy indicates destabilization of livelihood assets of rural communities of Oromia and Southern Ethiopia.
Despite important legal victories, Anuak of Gambella continue to face land evictions and repression to clear their lands for foreign and domestic investors.
Ethiopia is selling off vast chunks of its land to foreign investors who are growing food products for export — and those who get in the government's way are being killed or silenced.
The unconstitutional government land program may be the most painful tragedy for the framers of southern and western Ethiopia that they can ever tell, if they are allowed to tell it.
The government has not presented satisfactory and truthful explanations about its actions, let alone credible defense of its role as agency and facilitator of the abominable practices of farmland grabbing.
The people of Ethiopia have a question for you and the government of Ethiopia you represent, “Why are you giving away our land to foreigners?”
"This apparent rush to lease so much farmland, much or all of it to foreign interests, during a time of worsening food insecurity should raise concern within the donor community about GoE motivations and negotiating capacity," writes the US embassy in Addis Ababa in December 2009
Claiming to have made an investment of US$75M and created 4000 jobs, Karuturi is not only appealing for the release or re-export of its properties but to sue Ethiopian officials hereferred to as “responsible” for violations of rights of a foreign entity.
The entire edifice of Karuturi's enterprise, especially the Gambella 300,000 ha, is allegedly founded on corruption (bribery) and too many lies, writes The Ethiopian Observatory.
The Ethiopian government has miserably failed to engage and convince citizens about the present and long-term implications of farmland grabbing.
A petition denouncing the unjust imprisonment of three Ethiopian human rights defenders is being presented this week to the Ethiopian government as well as its financial backers.
The U.S. should reassess its support for the government of Ethiopia, amid concern that more than half a million people are being evicted to make land available for foreign investment in agriculture, advocacy groups say.
Ethiopia’s government said it plans to clear land and provide infrastructure for investors to accelerate a commercial farming drive in the west of the country, amid opposition to the plans that left 19 people dead.
