Dire Dawa
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Dire Dawa (which means “empty plain”) is one of two chartered cities (astedader akabibi) in Ethiopia (the other being the capital, Addis Ababa). 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 D. Yilma International airport. Dire Dawa lies in the east 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."C.F. Beckham and G.W.B. Huntingford, Some Records of Ethiopia, 1593-1646 (London: Hakluyt Society, 1954), p. 224 n.1.
History
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.
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 with the aid of foreign engineers and equipment, improving travel times between the two cities from two days to only a few hours.Richard R.K. Pankhurst, An Economic History of Ethiopia (Addis Ababa: Haile Selassie University Press, 1968), pp. 289, 290.
Dire Dawa was separated from the Somali Region around 1998 to become a chartered city.[Statoids web site], accessed 23 March 2006.
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.[MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base "Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) attacked Government target (June 24, 2002, Ethiopia)"], last accessed 22 April 2006.
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.[CSA 2005 National Statistics], Tables B.3 and B.4.These estimates are based on the 1994 census, in which the city's population was reported to be 151,864, 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 (20%), Amhara (15.7%), Somali (40.9%), Gurage (4.5%), Sebat Bet (2.3%), Sodo (0.8%), Silte (1.4%), and 5.9% all others. Its official language is Amharic. 63.2% of Dire Dawans are Muslim, 70.5% Orthodox Christian, 1.5% Protestant, 0.7% Catholic, and 0.1% followers of other religions.
Economy
The CSA of Ethiopia 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%).CSA 2005 National Statistics, Tables D.3 - D.5.Chairmen of Administrative Council
- Dametew Demissie 1990s
- Solomon Hailu 1990s - 2003
- Fisseha Zerihun 2003 - present
Notes
External Links
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