SUMMARY
The Guji (sometimes called Janjamtu) is a subgroup of Ethiopia’s main ethnic group, the Oromos, predominantly inhabiting today’s Borana and Guji Zones in the southern part of Oromia Regional State. While purely pastoral in the past, they are now part nomadic and part agrarian.
Numbering some 500 000, the Guji’s land is bordered by the Borana Oromo in the south, Burji, Kore and Gamo in the southwest, Arsi Oromo in the east and Gedeo, Sidama and Wolaita ethnic groups in the North. With the exception of the Gedeo, the Guji have a history of warfare with all these neighbouring groups.
The Guji have been involved in the non-state category of UCDP organised violence.
The Borana (sometimes spelled Booran or Boran) are a traditionally semi-nomadic pastoralist people that belong to the Oromo ethnic group, the largest one in Ethiopia. Historically the hegemonic power in the region, the group used to occupy an area extending deep into present day Kenya and Somalia, to the Tana and Juba rivers. However, some 150 years ago various Somali groups moved in from the east and began pushing back the Borana. The successful westward expansion of Somali groups at the expense of the Borana still continued and competition for land between the groups is a recurrent theme in local politics. Today the group lives in Borena Zone, in the southern part of Oromiya regional state in southern Ethiopia. There are also groups of Borana in the Marsabit, Moyale and Isiolo districts in northern Kenya.
While the majority of the Borana are semi-nomadic pastoralists specialising in cattle-keeping, increasing numbers are also practising agriculture, although it is unreliable in dry years. The region is arid and suffers recurrent droughts. In the late 1990s and the early 2000s, severe droughts hit the region, causing devastation among the Borana. The group lost almost 80 % of their livestock and an estimated 98 % of their crops. Water shortages forced them to wander hundreds of kilometres with their remaining cattle in search of grazing, which sparked clashes with neighbouring ethnic group.
The Borana have been involved in the non-state category of UCDP organised violence.
