SUMMARY

The Afar are a mainly pastoralist people inhabiting the Horn of Africa. They are mainly located in the Afar regional state in eastern Ethiopia and in northern Djibouti, but can also be found in the southern-most part of Eritrea. Today they number around one million. Historically, the Afar were grouped in to five sultanates whose combined territory ran from the Red Sea in the east to the foothill of the escarpment in the west, the Dire Dawa region in the south and the vicinity of Masawa in the north. However, as a result of the imperialist scramble, the sultanates were dismantled and the Afar land divided between Ethiopia, Italian Eritrea and French Djibouti. Furthermore, the Afar territory has continuously decreased, as the group has been pushed northwards by their Somali neighbors. In Djibouti, formerly a purely Afar area, this has meant that the Issa Somali now outnumber the latter. In Ethiopia the Afars have been driven northwards from Dire Dawa and the Issa Somali now claims the eastern portion of the Alighedi plain. The Afar have also lost good land to agricultural encroachments and to private and state initiated development schemes. Consequently, the Afar pastoralists are facing a shrinking resource base which, in turn, has lead to intensified competition and conflict both within the group and with other ethnic groups over access and tenure rights to land.

The Afar have been involved in the non-state category of UCDP organised violence.