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Canada urged to stop Ethiopia from evicting villagers
CBC News
A rights' watchdog is urging Canada and fellow aid donors to pressure Ethiopia into ending an abusive and systematic practice of forcing rural villagers off their land.
A report released Tuesday by New York-based Human Rights Watch blasts the Horn of Africa country for its "villagization" program that it says has forcibly relocated 70,000 indigenous people, and aims to move 1.5 million by next year.
The forced expulsions have cut villagers off from food sources, basic health services while forcing them to endure abuse from the Ethiopian army, the report alleges.
An Ottawa-based researcher and author interviewed more than 100 Ethiopians during a clandestine investigation last year that accuses their country's leaders of sacrificing its own tribes to broader foreign corporate interests.
Researcher Felix Horne says the situation violates Canada's own Official Development Assistance Accountability Act, which says all aid spending must meet international human-rights standards.
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