Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08ASMARA555
2008-11-19 08:30:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Asmara
Cable title:  

SKINNY VILLAGERS AND STUNTED CROPS

Tags:  EAGR PGOV ER 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO4451
RR RUEHROV
DE RUEHAE #0555/01 3240830
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 190830Z NOV 08
FM AMEMBASSY ASMARA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0021
INFO RUCNIAD/IGAD COLLECTIVE
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RUMICEA/JICCENT MACDILL AFB FLFRFEKDIA/DIA WASD
RHRMONIER DJ
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHMFISS/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ASMARA 000555 

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR AF/E,
LONDON AND PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHERS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/18/2018
TAGS: EAGR PGOV ER
SUBJECT: SKINNY VILLAGERS AND STUNTED CROPS

Classified By: Ambassador Ronald K. McMullen for Reason 1.4 (d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ASMARA 000555

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR AF/E,
LONDON AND PARIS FOR AFRICA WATCHERS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/18/2018
TAGS: EAGR PGOV ER
SUBJECT: SKINNY VILLAGERS AND STUNTED CROPS

Classified By: Ambassador Ronald K. McMullen for Reason 1.4 (d)


1. (C) SUMMARY: Poor rains left crops in the Eritrean
village of Weki (protect) stunted and yielding very little
food. The Eritrean government prohibits the villagers from
keeping what little crops they've harvested, forcing them to
sell their produce only to the government at controlled
prices, while allotting them meager rations. Two months into
the dry season, people and livestock alike are alarmingly
thin and malnourished. Emboff's recent visit to the village
provides anecdotal evidence of a looming food emergency in
Eritrea. END SUMMARY.


2. (C) Emboff traveled to the village of Weki on November 10
to meet villagers and learn how they are coping with poor
seasonal rains. Weki has about 1,000 inhabitants, and is
located 17 miles north of Asmara, close enough to the capital
to avoid the system of checkpoints used to restrict
foreigners' travel.

BURNED AND STUNTED CROPS
--------------

3. (C) The villagers rely almost entirely on farming for
food. They grow corn, wheat, barely, potatoes, and a type of
bean/pea known as baldonga. The village's fields are in a
sweet spot where they usually receive both lowland rains
coming from the escarpment, and seasonal rains on Eritrea's
highlands. The villagers said neither rain was sufficient
this year, resulting in crops' pitiful yields. Emboff
noticed that few of the corn stalks had ears (roughly 20%),
most of which produced few kernels. The wheat and barley are
only about two feet tall; potatoes were marble-sized, at
best. The only bright spot was the baQdQnga grown inate beans.

SKINNY COWS, SCROUNGING CHICKENS, AND DYING DOGS
-------------- ---

4. (C) The villagers also raise some cattle, goats, chickens,
and sheep for eggs, meat, and milk. Poor rains resulted in
insufficient grass growth, inadequate to last through the
long dry season. A villager told Emboff that one of his cows
recently died of hunger, while another became so thin that he
sold the cow for $270 before it died (a loss of $200 from the
purchase price). Five of another family's ten sheep died
recently of an unknown affliction. Several listless,
malnourished dogs appeared to be bordering on death. Four

scrawny chickens fearlessly hunted for discarded food among
many kicking feet while Emboff sat speaking to the villagers.

ALL WORK, NO CASH
--------------

5. (C) A woman in the village told Emboff that she was
employed in the GSE's &cash for work8 program in 2006. The
GSE funded the program by monetizing food aid seized in 2006
from USAID, the European Commission, and the World Food
Program. The woman said she performed manual labor for
several months in 2006, but never received compensation.
Both the woman and some other villagers expressed deep
dissatisfaction with the GSE, bordering on hatred, and
doubted the government could provide them with adequate food.

EXPROPRIATED HARVEST, MEAGER RATIONS, AND CHECKPOINTS
-------------- --------------

6. (C) The Eritrean government requires the villagers to sell
all harvested crops to government purchasers, and does not
allow them to keep crops for themselves. The GSE assigns a
manager to enforce this requirement. People from the village
sometimes sneak into the fields at night to harvest a bit of
food for their families to supplement the GSE's meager
rations. One family of four reported receiving only 20
pounds of sorghum for an entire month, adequate for onQyQone
week. QhQ family ate only once per day, right before bed;
otherwise, they would be too hungry to fall asleep.


7. (C) To combat illegal transfers of food in Eritrea, the
GSE instituted several customs checkpoints on roads leading
into Asmara. The soldiers at these checkpoints only stop
vehicles coming into Asmara, and are said to confiscate as
little as two pounds of raw wheat or flour.

MISSING MEN
--------------

ASMARA 00000555 002 OF 002



8. (C) Although Weki has 1,000 residents, few young men were
present. The few there wore military uniforms and were
working in the fields. Villagers said soldiers from the
village often overstay their one-week furloughs by as much as
two months to help work in the fields. If the soldiers
return to their units within two months (and are not caught
in the meantime),the GSE only penalizes them their meager
pay rather than administering harsher punishment. Many young
men are evading mandatory national service by living with
relatives in Asmara, where they look for work to help support
their families in the village. Other young men from the
village fled to Sudan.

MALNUTRITION
--------------

9. (C) Emboff noticed that all of the village's inhabitants
were extraordinarily skinny. When greeting them, Emboff felt
protruding vertebrae and scapulae. Many of the villagers had
shrunken cheeks, and the children seemed unusually small for
their age. Emboff noted one seven year-old girl only the
size of a three- or four-year-old child.


10. (C) COMMENT: This eye-witness account of Weki tracks
with other post information about Eritrean villages beyond
Asmara's military checkpoints. Despite their professed deep
dislike of GSE economic policies, the Weki villagers' focus
on daily survival leaves them little time or energy for
stronger expressions of their discontent. END COMMENT.
MCMULLEN