Dessie - FINDING A WAY

Dessie, the capital of South Wollo Zone in Ethiopia's Amhara region, is a city that has experienced displacement from multiple directions: it hosts IDPs from the Oromia–Amhara conflict, returnees forced back from Sudan after April 2023, and a host community that was itself briefly displaced when the northern Ethiopia war reached South Wollo in 2021. Three different relationships to displacement, competing for the same limited housing, jobs, and services. 

Through Mohammad's story, an IDP from Wollega who fled violence at night across the Abay desert, and Belay's story, a returnee from Saudi Arabia whose employer beat her and who came back to Dessie injured and without means, the episode surfaces what recovery actually looks like when it is uneven and slower than the new buildings suggest. 90 percent of IDPs report high stress, much of it tied to fear of forced return. LLEARN's three Participatory Forums in Dessie moved from naming these tensions to a specific, agreed pilot: a mobile national-ID registration and cost-support model,  documentation that opens doors.

Hosted by Mwara Namelok with support from LLEARN local partner in Dessie: The Consortium of Ethiopian Human Rights Organizations (CEHRO)

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