Ethiopia’s peoples must be allowed to choose: either to make Ethiopia a consensual nation-building project or to let it go. Any national dialogue that does not acknowledge this reduces itself to a wrestle for power between political elites.
This report focuses on the borderland region between Sudan and Ethiopia, using gold-mining and trade to examine transnational flows of people and commodities across its semi-permeable frontier.In the Sudan–Ethiopia borderland Blue Nile state and Benishangul-Gumuz region gold mining has shifted from being part of a long-term, family- and community-based livelihood strategy to a short-term entrepreneurial pursuit. Mining is increasingly dominated by the private sector, with the military now a leading player in Sudan.
Attempts by the governments of Sudan and Ethiopia to increase control over the circulation of artisanal gold in their borderland regions have largely failed. Instead, cross-border trade has increased, away from official pathways. The reasons for this are many, including price differentials, short-staffed and underfunded regional governments, and a lack of commitment to national laws vis-à-vis individual revenues.