274 Scarcity and Surfeit
Livestock diseases (internal parasites and others) spread and livestock
health suffered owing to the agro-chemicals used in the plantations.
Pastoralist conditions were worsened by the 1974 ban on firing the range that
was used by pastoralists to renew pasture, control bush encroachment and
eradicate pests such as ticks.lo4 Their desperation increasing and their
options decreasing, pastoralists sporadically invaded the plantations to graze
their livestock.10s
Some effort was made to settle the evicted pastoralists, mainly Afar, as a
token compensation for alienated land. It was thought that this would also
serve the purpose of bringing the pastoralists under state control. However,
as Ayalew Gebre describes, "attempts to sedentarise the nomadic Afar proved
to be largely unsuccessful because it did not take into account the ethos of
the would-be beneficiaries and therefore failed to develop strategies of per-
suading the people of the usefulness of the scheme."106
Not all the Afar were bypassed by developments in the valley. Some par-
ticipated to a certain degree and gained some economic benefits as a result,
such as employment on the state farms. However, "such trends sowed the
seeds of further conflict within Afar political structures as a growing Afar
capitalist class undermined traditional clan elders. This was a factor in the
violent conflict that followed in the Dergue period':lo7
The Awash National Park was gazetted in 1966, covering 803 square kilo-
metres between Metahara and the Awash Station. Previously, the park area
was predominately used by the Kerreyu and Afar pastoralists for dry and wet
season grazing before being alienated and enclosed for the park.lo8 As a
result, competition between pastoralist groups, as well as with the Arsi
Oromo (who had already lost a large proportion of their land due to the Nurra
Era Plantation) increased as they moved in search of pasture and water sup-
plies. In addition, access to key dry season springs was lost."9
In the early 1970s Issa herders from the Somali region encroached into
areas inhabited by Afar pastoralists. The Afar petitioned the government to
check this movement. However, the government felt that it was not able to
risk damaging its fragile relationship with the Issa-dominated Djibouti gov-
ernment, considered an important international ally. The government request-
ed the Afar to share the limited resources of the Awash with the Issa. The 1975
Land Reform nationalised all lands including commercial developments and
grazing lands in the Awash Valley. The land reform increased conflict over
access to land and other resources. Violence broke out in the area between
the government, pro-government groups and armed pastoralist groups, includ-
ing the Afar and Issa. The unity of different pastoralist groups, already ques-
tionable, receded further.lLO
In addition, land alienation negatively impacted the traditional communal
spirit of the Afar. Individual land 'ownership' encouraged new frictions over
the use and sharing of grazing resources to develop. "As grazing land became