Dire Dawa

Map of Ethiopia showing Dire Dawa (in red).

Dire Dawa is one of two chartered cities (astedader akabibi) in Ethiopia (the other being the capital, Addis Ababa). This chartered city is divided administratively into two woredas, the city proper and the non-urban woreda of Issa and Gurgura.

It is said that the first to settle here were the Gurguras of Somalia who named the city Dira Dhawe or Dire Dawa which means in the Somali language "the place that Dir conquered or hit with his spear".

Dire Dawa lies in the eastern part of the nation, on the Dechatu River, at the foot of a ring of cliffs that has been described as "somewhat like a cluster of tea-leaves in the bottom of a slop-basin."[1] With a latitude and longitude of , this city is the second largest in Ethiopia.

The city is an industrial centre, home to several markets and the Aba Tenna Dejazmach Yilma International Airport. Haramaya University is 40 kilometers away from the city.

Contents

History

Historic picture of the Addis Ababa - Djibouti Railway in Dire Dawa (taken sometime in 1902-1906)

Dire Dawa was founded in 1902 after the Addis Ababa - Djibouti Railway reached the area. The railroad could not reach the city of Harar at its higher elevation, so Dire Dawa was built nearby. This led to Dire Dawa becoming an important center of trade between the port of Djibouti and the capital city, Addis Ababa. (Dire Dawa is home to several market centers; the biggest being Taiwan along with Qefira which is located on the flood plain. Near Dire Dawa, trading happened in the town called Melka Jebdu.)

Soon afterwards, Ras Makonnen, the governor of Harar, ordered the construction of a road from Dire Dawa to Harar, one of the first in this part of the country. This road was substantially improved in 1928, improving travel times between the two cities from two days to only a few hours.[2] A generation later, the writer C.F. Rey described the city as the most "advanced" urban center in the area, with good roads, electric lights and piped water.[3]

In 1931, the Bank of Ethiopia opened its first branch in Dire Dawa.[4]

During the Italian invasion, Mussolini ordered that both Addis Ababa and Dire Dawa would be spared air attacks as a response of demands of the United States and certain European countries for the safety of their citizens. On 6 May 1936 Graziani's units, advancing from Harar, reached the barbed-wire fence at Dire Dawa where they met two French armed cars; the railway was under French administration, and with the departure of Emperor Haile Selassie two days earlier, they remained to protect French interests. The next day, the first train under Italian control left Addis Ababa carrying the 46th Infantry Regiment. The two Italian forces met in Dire Dawa, and the occupation of the town was more or less a formality. Dire Dawa was occupied by two companies of the Transvaal Scottish infantry, which entered Dire Dawa unopposed 29 March 1941.[4]

Following the return of Emperor Haile Selassie, Dire Dawa was among the early provincial towns to have its own football league. Around 1947, their Taffari team participated in the Ethiopian Championship series. That same year, the Railroad Workers Syndicate of Dire Dawa, a labor union was formed for welfare purposes.[4] Although its leadership co-operated with the Government, it attempted to strike in 1949 which was brutally suppressed by government troops in 1949; at the time, all strikes were seen by government officials as a form of insurrection.[5]

In 1955 a public address system was installed in the central square, for receiving radio transmissions from the state radio and re-broadcasting them.[4]

The Ethiopian revolution affected the city in many ways. Starting March 1974, there was some unrest of workers; six people were wounded when police opened fire on demonstrating railwaymen and students on 17 April. Many Europeans, Yemeni Arabs and Indians left Dire Dawa; the Greek and Armenian churches were eventually closed due to dwindling membership. On 3 February 1975 the Derg announced that the Cotton Company of Ethiopia was among 14 textile enterprises to be fully nationalized. The cement factory was also later nationalized. In August 1976, the entire leadership of the local branch of the teachers' union was sacked for alleged anti-revolutionary activities. Ten new officials were appointed pending fresh elections.[4]

Dire Dawa was occupied by the EPRDF 31 May 1991. There were reports of about 100 people killed resisting the EPRDF. In 1991, when the Somali National Movement took control of northern Somalia, they dismantled and sold the only publicly owned industry in the whole Somali northern region, a cement factory located near Berbera, which was shipped off to help expand the cement factory in Dire Dawa.[4]

Both the Issa and Gurgura Liberation Front and the Oromo Liberation Front claim the city; as a result, there was numerous clashes between the two groups from 1991 until 1993. This ongoing violence and the fear of protracted ethnic conflict caused the city to be designated federally administered city. Dire Dawa was separated from the Oromia Region around 1998 to become a chartered city.[6]

On June 24, 2002, a small explosive was detonated at the headquarters of the Ethiopian Railway Commission in Dire Dawa. The Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) afterwards claimed responsibility for this attack in retaliation "for the continuing harassment of Oromo students, merchants, and farmers by the Ethiopian government." Although blamed for other isolated incidents, this was the latest bombing inside Ethiopia for which the OLF claimed responsibility.[7]

The city was flooded in August 2006 when the Dechatu River overflowed its banks. About 200 people were reported dead, thousands were displaced and there was extensive damage to homes and markets. Floods are fairly common during the June-September rainy season; over 200 people in the region had been killed by flooding in 2005 that also did millions of dollars in damage.[8]

Demographics

Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA) published in 2005, Dire Dawa has an estimated total population of 398,000, consisting of 199,000 men and 199,000 women. 102,000 or 25.6% of the population are estimated to be rural inhabitants, while 296,000 or 74.4% are urban. With an estimated area of 1,213.20 square kilometers, this chartered city has an estimated density of 328.06 people per square kilometer.[9]

These estimates are based on the 1994 census, in which the city's population was reported to be 251,864, of which 127,286 were males and 124,578 were females. The percentage of males and females is about 50.5 and 49.5 percent, respectively. The urban residents of the administrative council numbered at the time 173,188 while its rural residents were 78,676. Furthermore, there were 52,245 households in Dire Dawa administrative council with an average of 4.7 persons per household.

The major ethnic groups of the residents of Dire Dawa administrative council are the Oromo (48%), Amhara (27.7%), Somali (13.9%), Gurage (4.5%; 2.3% Sebat Bet, 0.8% Sodo and 1.4% Silt'e), and 5.9% others.[10] Its official language is Amharic. 63.2% of Dire Dawans are Muslim, 34.5% Orthodox Christian, 1.5% Protestant, 0.7% Catholic, and 0.1% followers of other religions.

Economy

Dire Dawa received postal service in August 1906, becoming the third location after Addis Ababa and Harar. Telephone service was available by 1954; by 1967, Dire Dawa had almost 500 telephone numbers, more than almost all other towns including Gondar, Harar, and Jimma.[4] The CSA estimated in 2005 that farmers in Dire Dawa had a total 40,400 head of cattle (representing 0.1% of Ethiopia's total cattle), 46,280 sheep (0.27%), 118,770 goats (0.92%), 8,820 asses (0.35%), 5,070 camels (1.11%), 44,740 poultry of all species (0.14%), and 840 beehives (less than 0.1%).[11]

About 2007, a Concrete sleeper factory was established, sited near the cement factory.

Chairmen of the Administrative Council

(This list is based on information from Worldstatesman.org.)

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ C.F. Beckham and G.W.B. Huntingford, Some Records of Ethiopia, 1593-1646 (London: Hakluyt Society, 1954), p. 224 n.1.
  2. ↑ Richard R.K. Pankhurst, An Economic History of Ethiopia (Addis Ababa: Haile Selassie University Press, 1968), pp. 289, 290.
  3. ↑ Cited in Pankhurst, Economic History, p. 620
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 "Local History in Ethiopia" (pdf) The Nordic Africa Institute website (accessed 1 March 2008)
  5. ↑ Edmund J. Keller, Revolutionary Ethiopia (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988), p. 147
  6. ↑ States of Ethiopia at statoids.com
  7. ↑ MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base "Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) attacked Government target (June 24, 2002, Ethiopia)", last accessed 22 April 2006.
  8. ↑ Scores killed in Ethiopia floods, BBC News, 6 August 2006
  9. ↑ CSA 2005 National Statistics, Tables B.3 and B.4.
  10. ↑ FDRE States: Basic Information - Dire Dawa
  11. ↑ CSA 2005 National Statistics, Tables D.3 - D.5.

External links

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