 And ethnic conflicts occur between the highlanders and the Anuaks, sometimes bringing in the Nuers as well.These ethnic problems began in the 1980s - when the previous Derg government used forced resettlement to bring about 50,000 people from Ethiopia's exhausted central highlands to the fertile, but swampy, malaria-infested Gambella region where the Anuaks and Nuers live.The Anuak rebels also attack miners and economic development workers in Gambela.