SUMMARY
The Dizi and Suri live in the Maji region of south-western [Ethiopia(/#country/530), a marginalized border area where the state has relatively little influence. The region is culturally heterogeneous, containing several ethnic groups with different livelihoods, speaking a dozen languages. While relations between many of the groups have traditionally been conflictual, the scale and nature of the fighting has changed since the early 1990s, turning more deadly and brutal.
Historically, the relationship between the Dizi and Suri was by and large friendly. The two groups inhabit neighboring areas, with the Suri occupying the lowland to the south and west of the Dizi Mountains, and in the past they were joined in a ritual alliance under which they regulated access to valuable resources under a rain pact. This cultural agreement helped stabilize relations between the two groups, who exploit different, partly complementary, ecological niches. The alliance did not preclude violence between the groups however; elders speak of cattle raiding and theft also during this time, the difference being that this took place within a shared framework of relations. Under this, strict rules were adhered to concerning both how violence could be conducted and how members of the tribes should be reconciled through mediation and sacrifice.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the shared framework of relations broke down and the former allies became enemies. There were a number of interlinked reasons for this: the northward expansion of pastoralist groups, the access to automatic weapons, and the breakdown of traditional authority among the Suri.
Population growth, competition over scarce resources, violent conflict, and a slowly changing balance of power between several agro-pastoral groups in the region has caused a northward movement in the area. The Turkana and Dassanetch groups have pushed the Suri’s southern neighbor the Nyangatom to move north, entering and taking over the former group’s traditional home area around Mount Naita in the Ethiopia–Sudan border area. This resulted in the Suri having to migrate north, whereby they encroached on territory traditionally belonging to the Dizi, resulting in frequent clashes.
Alongside this northward movement, many groups in the region have gained access to modern, semi-automatic weapons and the area is today awash with this type of weaponry. As these have by and large replaced customary arms like spears and sticks, the violent encounters have turned more deadly. Furthermore, the access to semi-automatic weapons has accelerated the breakdown of traditional authority structures among the Suri. Political authority among the Suri used to be vested in a senior age grade of elders and in a more ceremonial leader called the komoru, in charge of communicating with the spirit world. While this social structure is still in place it is no longer functioning the way it traditionally did. The authority of the elders is being challenged by the young men, with the latter making decisions on e.g. launching raiding parties on their own, without sanctioning them with the elders first. This growing power of the young herders is in part a result of them acquiring automatic weapons, but also due to their increasing economic independence, which stems from them making a profit in the gold trade. As traditional authority structures have broken down there is no longer any rules guiding how and when violence can be used. Furthermore, there is no stratum in society charged with attempting to reconcile the groups. This has resulted in a more instrumental use of violence and the young Suri men now view it as a new way of acquiring wealth and status. In addition, instead of reconciliation, revenge is sought, spurring new fighting in a vicious cycle.
The conflict between the two groups is characterized by unpredictable, sudden flare-ups of violence. It can erupt either over specific conflictual issues such as access to pasture and water for the cattle or simply when members of the two groups meet on the road. According to local informants the violence is crueler now than it was in the past, now oftentimes targeting women, children, and elders, something that used to be inconceivable. Generally, it is the Suri who are the aggressors. The group is better armed and the Dizi frequently suffer heavy casualties from clashes.
The non-state conflict between the Dizi and Suri is first included in UCDP data in 1991. Sometime that year, the Suri carried out a retaliatory attack against the Dizi after the latter had killed a Suri. The attack, in the village of Kärsi in what was then Kaffa province, resulted in almost 100 battle-related deaths.
