SUMMARY

The Kereyou (sometimes spelled Karrayu or Kereyu) is an ethnic group in the Metehara Plain and Mount Fentale area in the Awash Valley region in Oromo regional state in eastern Ethiopia. Numbering around 7000, the group has two major tribal divisions; Basso and Dulecha.

Traditionally pastoralists, the group has over the last decades also turned to agriculture, a trend that is mainly driven by the expropriation of pastoralist land by both the State and by private foreign agribusiness in joint venture with the State. The expropriated land has been turned into large-scale plantations, notably the the Wonji Shoa and Metehara Sugar estate established by the Dutch firm Handels Vereniging Amsterdam (H.V.A.), but also into a national park. The Awash National park was established by the State in 1969 in the Upper Awash Valley on an area of 80,000 hectares – a vast area traditionally used for both dry and wet season grazing by the Kereyou. The Kereyou has come under even further pressure due to an influx of farmers from the Ittu ethnic group onto their traditional land. The net result of all these processes was that the total territory of the Kereyou shrunk by 60 % between 1950 and 1995. With the loss of land, the pastoralist means of livelihood has weakened substantially.

Furthermore, similar developments in neighbouring areas have meant that other pastoralist groups have encroached on Kereyou territory in search of grazing land, causing tensions. This tendency was further reinforced by sever droughts in the region in the early 2000s. Between 2000 and 2002 the Kereyou lost nearly two thirds of their livestock due to drought.

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