(Reuters) - Abdu Ibrahim Mohammed was 15 years old when he began trekking
with caravans of camels to collect salt in a sun-blasted desert basin of
north Ethiopia that is one of the hottest places on earth.
Now 51 and retired, he has passed his camels to his son to pursue this
centuries-old trade in "white gold" from the Danakil Depression, where rain
almost never falls and the average temperature is 94 degrees Fahrenheit
(34.4 Celsius).
But the tradition of hacking salt slabs from the earth's crust and
transporting them by camel is changing as a paved road is built across the
northern Afar region.
Although the road being cut through the Danakil Depression is making it
easier to transport the salt, the region's fiercely independent local salt
miners and traders are wary of the access it might give to industrial mining
companies with mechanized extraction techniques that require far less labor.
"Most of the people who live here are dependent on the salt caravans, so we
are not happy with prospective salt companies that try to set up base here,"
said Abdullah Ali Noor, a chief and clan leader's son in Hamad-Ile, on the
salt desert's edge.
"Everything has to be initiated from the community. We prefer to stick with
the old ways," he added.
The tarmac road will link the highland city of Mekele with the village of
Dallol in the Danakil Depression, a harsh but hauntingly beautiful
geographical wonder of salt flats and volcanoes once described as "a land of
death" by the famous British desert explorer Wilfred Thesiger.
The road has cut from five hours to three the drive from Mekele to Berahile,
a town two days' trek by camel from the Afar salt deposits that one of
Ethiopia's main sources of the crystalline food product.
New roads like these are gradually helping to transform this landlocked Horn
of Africa state, which has a unique culture and history but has been racked
by coups, famines and droughts, into one of the fastest-growing economies on
the continent.
As Africa's biggest coffee producer, Ethiopia's economy remains based on
agriculture, which accounts for 46 percent of gross domestic product and 85
percent of employment. But its nearly 94 million population - the second
biggest in Africa - is attracting the attention of foreign investors hungry
for new markets.
ACCESS TO MARKET
Further south in the Danakil Depression, at the salt reserve of Lake Afdera,
industrial salt production is already under way.
A company named Berhane and Zewdu PLC came to the desert plains near
Hamad-Ile in 2011 aiming to produce salt there, according to Noor.
Clan leaders saw the threat to their ancient trade and lined up to oppose
the project. Fearing sabotage of its equipment, the company left the
following year, local people said.
But Noor still welcomed the new road.
"The new highway will give easy access to the market, which will bring
benefits and development to this region," Noor said.
The development he talks of is visible in Berahile, where caravans from the
salt pans come to drop off their cargo so it can be transported to the rest
of the country. Most residents are involved directly or indirectly in the
salt business.
Telephone and electricity networks have been extended to the town over the
past four years, a new Berahile Salt Association was established in 2010 to
facilitate trade and a recently built salt store is now the biggest
construction in town.
"Thousands of people benefit from this work as the salt here is exported
throughout the country," said the head of the association, Derassa Shifa.
For now, tradition and modernity co-exist - the organization buys salt from
the caravans that make the four-day trek to the salt flats and back, then
sells it to merchants who carry it away by truck.
The salt blocks, which were once used as a unit of money, are sold across
Ethiopia, many of them to farmers to provide their animals with essential
minerals. Ethiopia has the largest livestock population on the African
continent.
Life is harsh for the thousands of camel herders and salt extractors who use
traditional hoes and axes to carve the "white gold" out of the ground in the
Danakil Depression.
Many of the salt diggers live in Hamad-Ile and hire out their services to
different caravans.
The work, however exhausting, still draws thousands onto the baking salt
flats.
"You forget about the sun and the heat," said Kidane Berhe, 45, a camel
herder and salt merchant. "I lost a friend once on the salt desert because
he was working too much with no protection from the sun. Eventually he just
collapsed."
(Additional reporting by Mohammed Abdella in Hamad-Ile and Aaron Maasho in
Addis Ababa; Writing by Hannah Vinter and Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Angus
MacSwan and Tom Pfeiffer)
(Reuters) - Sudan's Foreign Minister Ali Ahmed Karti will visit South Sudan
on Friday, state media said, the first high-level meeting between the
neighbors since Khartoum accused Juba of supporting rebels who launched a
major attack three weeks ago.
Both African countries agrees in March to restart crucial cross-border oil
flows and end tensions that has existed since the south seceded in 2011.
But despite this thaw, Sudan accused South Sudan on Saturday of supporting a
rebel alliance which launched a surprise attack on the central Sudanese city
of Um Rawaba.
In the first high-level contact since then, Karti will visit Juba with
intelligence chief Mohamed Atta to deliver a letter regarding bilateral
relations from President Omar Hassan al-Bashir to South Sudan's Salva Kiir,
state news agency SUNA said.
Diplomats hope both sides, which fought one of Africa's longest civil wars
that ended with a 2005 peace deal, will continue to improve ties and work to
end remaining conflicts over disputed territory left after their messy split
in 2011.
The attack in Um Rawaba, normally a placid commercial hub, was conducted by
an alliance of three rebel groups from Darfur, scene of a decade-long
rebellion of non-Arab tribes, and the Sudan People's Liberation
Movement-North (SPLM-North).
The SPLM-North is made up of fighters who sided with the south during the
civil war. Like the Darfur rebels, they complain of marginalization in Sudan
a country controlled by an Arab elite in Khartoum.
Sudan and South Sudan came close to war in April 2012 when border skirmishes
broke out over oil exports fees, rebel support and disputed territory.
(Reporting by Ulf Laessing; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
