News: News Archives AAAS Geospatial Report: Ethiopian
“Villagization” Policy is Displacing Farmers in Gambella Region
In 2009, the Akuna farming community is visible, with multiple
small structures near small agricultural fields. By late 2011,
however, all of these structures are missing (indicated by
circles) and the adjacent fields have been abandoned. Satellite
images ©2011 GeoEye, Inc. Location: 7°54’36.2”N, 34°38’53”E
Satellite images confirm that villagers living within the
Gambella region of Western Ethiopia have been relocated to
smaller and less desirable plots of land, possibly to make way
for large foreign-owned commercial farms, according to a new
report by AAAS. The study by the AAAS Geospatial Technologies
and Human Rights Project details the apparent destruction of
dozens of small homes and other structures, most occupied by
small-scale subsistence farmers. At the same time, satellite
images collected by the project show construction of hundreds of
new buildings, and at one location, a new, lar