HEALTH ASPECTS OF DIE REPATRIATON OF DISPLACED CIVILIAN POPULATION IN WAR AND DROUGHT-AFFECTED AREAS OF ETHIOPIA

Abstract

A historical perspective of draught and famine in Ethiopia, "The Challenge of Draught - Ethiopia's Decade of Struggle in Relief and Rehabilitation" , gives an account of the different episodes that the country has had to suffer from this type of natural calamity. After reviewing the medieval situation, it progressively reaches to the great famine of the period from 1988-1992. The review includes in its analysis the situation in the highlands and also the situation in pastoralist areas of the country where, according to the observations, such incidents happen, in a cyclical manner every ten years. S.P. Petrides, in "The Boundary Questions between Ethiopia and Somalia , gives an account of how many major conflicts the country had to face between 1932 and 1935/6. The impressive list includes not less than 34 major conflicts involving at one time or the other; the west and north-west, the north, the east and the southern parts of the country. This list excludes the internal conflicts which were numerous, according to Tekle Tsadik Mekuria the well known Ethiopian historian.