Ethiopia: Pastoral leaders meet with the UN

Meskel Square reports on a meeting in Ethiopia between “four pastoralist groups from as far afield as Somali region” and leaders of the main UN agencies working in the country ^[1]. “The main topics of conversation were the drought and the need for greater official recognition of all of Ethiopia's pastoralist groups. Apparently Ethiopia's last regime under Mengistu dismissed many of them as “wanderers”, (maybe in the same way that Europe currently marginalises its ‘gypsies’ and ‘travelers’). The current government was doing much better, they said. But some wanted still more – a minister of pastoralist affairs for example.”