Fighting Over 'White Gold' - Sesame in Ethiopia and Sudan: EastAfrica Ethiopia Sudan
The supply chain of a seemingly innocuous cash crop - sesame - has intersected with transnational conflict dynamics, exacerbating tensions between Ethiopia and Sudan.
Conflict has exacerbated a steady decline in formal revenues from sesame exports, dropping over $115 million from 2016 to 2021. The taking of the area by Amhara forces in late 2020 saw the control over agricultural supply chains shift to actors from the Amhara region, amid contestation between regional officials, businessmen and security actors, backed by political elites. Thousands of displaced ethnic Tigrayan inhabitants of the area have been replaced by ethnic Amharas, enticed to settle there by the Amhara regional government's offer of grants and leases for land which promise better livelihoods.
At the national level, regional contestation over the control over Western Tigray/Welkait feeds into shifting political alliances between the Amhara, Tigrayans and Oromo which threaten the sustainability of the peace agreement struck between the federal government and TPLF in November 2022 - despite efforts by the government to defer the thorny issue.
Local Sudanese farmers have also lost out - with some not compensated for the loss of lands to their own military, with land given to people from other parts of the country, and through lost relationships with Ethiopian farmers, labourers and investors.
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