ESAT News (November 20, 2017)
People in Southern Ethiopia are protesting the regime for keeping them in poverty and political and economic marginalisation. They also reject a billionaire whom they said had extracted gold for over 20 years but did nothing for the community.
Residents of the town of Dima followed the footsteps of those in Shakiso and Adola and took to the streets in thousands to denounce the TPLF regime.
They have also voiced their grievance against billionaire Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi who has been extracting gold in Southern Ethiopia for over 20 years and is now negotiating with the regime to extend the mining contract for another 10 years. But the locals are saying enough with the mining company. They said projects by the billionaire did not help the poor community.
Al Amoudi, whose worth is at least 10.3 billion dollars, is one of the businessmen now in detention by Saudi authorities in the Kingdom’s crackdown against corruption. He owns vast agricultural land and projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars under a conglomerate called MIDROC.
The Guji Zone has seen continued protests in recent weeks against the regime and the billionaire, opposing the exploitation of gold and other natural resources on their turf; projects they say do not benefit the impoverished community.