Innovations, Number 67 December 2021 1890 www.journal-innovations.com The Impacts of Development-Induced Displacement of Persons in Ethiopia: The Dark Side of Addis Ababa’s Expansion Wakgari Kebeta Djigsa* Abstract The internal displacement of persons in the context of development and urbanization is an ever increasing global phenomenon which displaces people from their homes, lands and livelihoods. This article examines the impacts of development-induced displacements of personswith the continual expansion of Addis Ababa. It also investigates the adequacy of the legal redresses available for the victims of the urbanization. Drawing on qualitative methods, the article doctrinally investigatesinto the problem from legal, policy and historical perspective. It finds that successive Ethiopian governments have been abusing power, law and policy to displace the Oromo nation from the country’s capital city. It adds that the displaced persons lost their homes, family, language, culture, identity and livelihoods. The study urges the Ethiopian government to uphold its international and national obligations of refraining from causing arbitrary displacement of persons and redress the victims. Keywords:1. Development 2. Development-induced displacement 3. Ethiopia 4. Oromo 5.Finfinnee (Addis Ababa) I. Introduction Development-induced displacement has become one of the pressing human rights concern in Africa with large number of peoples displaced by development projects across the continent each year. i While much of the emphasis on internal displacement has centered primarily on conflict, ii the issue of development-induced displacement has gained less prominence, however, its impacts in Africa date back to the early 1950s. iii The magnitude of population displacement by development projects in developing countries has increased particularly since the 1960s and 1970s. iv In Ethiopia, there were and are planned, massive movements of people within the country as part of development resettlement programmes run nationally and regionally. v For a significantly large number of people in the country, the subject of state-directed, often mandatory people’s movements involves painful personal and collective experience. vi The concept of development-induced displacement has not been defined anywhere under Ethiopian laws. However, the new Expropriation Law defines ‘displaced people’ as ‘a person, households, firms, or public or private institutions who has been living in occupied land, including tenants, employed and self-employed persons on the land for public benefit.’ vii The development-induced displacement and resettlement (DIDR) consists of an analysis of the social-legal aspects of displacement and resettlement including the analysis of resettlement policy frameworks, power struggles between different actors, the institutional agencies implementing policy frameworks, the Innovations