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Coordinates: 11 ° 8 ' N , 39 ° 38' E
Dese ( Amharic ደሴ Däse ; also Dessie ) is one of the largest cities in Ethiopia and is located in the Amhara region , about 400 kilometers north of Addis Ababa .
The city is located on the northeastern edge of the Abyssinian highlands at an altitude of 2370 m. Dese shares an airport with neighboring Kombolcha . According to the Central Statistics Agency of Ethiopia, Dese had 169,104 inhabitants in 2005.
History and politics
The city was founded in 1883 by Yohannes IV . The name Dese literally means "my joy". The site had previously been known as Wäyra Amba , and Tewodros II had a military camp here. The area was suitable for settlement because it has the temperate climate of the Wäyna-Daga high zone and has fertile volcanic soils, so that the farmers could produce enough surplus food for the urban population. The governor's residence was built on a hill. As Dese is at the crossroads of two trade routes, it became an important trading center. Arabs also settled in Dese. Under Menelik II it was an important supply center for the Ethiopian army in the fight against the Italians.
The first governor was Ras Imru, followed by Crown Prince Asfa Wossen . Under Haile Selassie and during the rule of the Derg regime, Dese was the capital of the province of Wollo and from 1987 to 1991 of North Wollo. With the reorganization of the administrative structure of Ethiopia , Dese became part of the Amhara region .
On December 6, 1935, Italian planes bombed Dese and a Red Cross tent camp in the course of the Italo-Ethiopian War . On April 15, 1936, Italian troops occupied the city. Within Italian East Africa , Dese was first assigned to the Governorate of Amara (Amhara), but on October 1, 1940, transferred to Scioa ( Shewa ). On April 26, 1941, the 10,000-man Italian garrison surrendered to British troops advancing in Dese. In 1943, troops under the leadership of the Ethiopian Minister of War, Ras Abebe Aregai, gathered in Dese and then advanced north against the Woyane rebellion.
In 1965, 39,080 inhabitants were counted. 45.9% of the men and 11.9% of the women could read and write. 63% were Orthodox Christians and 36% Muslim. 24% of men and 28% of women were born in Dese. Most households lived in traditionally built houses with corrugated iron roofs. In terms of industry, there was a brewery and a food processing plant. In 1967 there were 40,619 inhabitants, of which 72.7% were illiterate.
During the famine in Ethiopia in 1972–1973 , which mainly affected Wollo, famine refugees poured into Dese. In 1975, of 56,849 residents, only 16.6% were born in the city.
In October 1989 Dese was almost taken over by the rebels of the Tigray People's Liberation Front (within the Revolutionary Democratic Front of the Ethiopian Peoples ), who already controlled north of Wollo.
In the 2005 elections, the opposition Coalition for Unity and Democracy received the majority of votes in Dese. After the elections, as in other cities, there were demonstrations over allegations of election manipulation against the ruling EPRDF.
Web links
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- ↑ Central Statistical Agency : 2005 National Statistics, Section – B Population ( Memento of the original dated February 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Table B.4 (PDF; 1.70 MB)
- ↑ a b c d e f The Nordic Africa Institute: Local History in Ethiopia (PDF; 317 kB)
- ↑ a b Mekete Belachew: Däse , in: Siegbert Uhlig (Ed.): Encyclopaedia Aethiopica , Volume 2, 2005, ISBN 978-3447052382
