Why Addis Ababa City Administration should not be taken for its words
borkena,Editorial
March 13,2017
As we are mourning more than 60 and dozens still missing after the garbage dump landslide, critical Ethiopians do refer to it as garbage dumpslide instead of landslide, Amnesty International – to its credit – squarely and rightly put the blame on the government. We are yet to hear from key state funders that do all talks about “good governance” and other multilateral institutions on their takes about this government made disaster.
If there was such thing as accountability or rule of law in Ethiopia, Addis Ababa City administration of should have been held accountable for abandoning a city as big as Addis Ababa, with over four million population, from which custom and revenue agency collected 22 billion in revenue (that is about a $1 billion) last year which is significant by the standard of African countries. The issue is not entirely unforeseen either. Concerns about Repi, it is also known as Koshe, garbage dump site was in the news sometime back. Residents were apprehended about it which gives a clue that the disaster could have been averted if the safety of residents was a matter of concern for the Addis Ababa City Administration and the Federal government itself. The city was pre-occupied with catering for the needs of investors while harassing the poor in the city.
It was utter deception on the part of Mayor Driba Kuma when he said, during the rescue effort, that Ababa City Administration would make sure that the victims are supported and given a place to stay in the future. How many thousands downtrodden Addis Ababa residents were cruelly evicted from their shanty houses to be left on their own with no home? And It was this same Addis Ababa City Administration that was spearheading the attack on defenseless people. In fact, some were killed during the process.
Editor
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