Asaita ( am, አሳይታ, Asayəta, aa, Aysaqiita), also known as Aussa (Awsa), is a town in northeastern
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
, and until 2007 served as the capital of the
Afar Region
The Afar Region (; aa, Qafar Rakaakayak; am, አፋር ክልል), formerly known as Region 2, is a regional state in northeastern Ethiopia and the homeland of the Afar people. Its capital is the planned city of Semera, which lies on the paved ...
of Ethiopia. Located in the
Afambo woreda
Districts of Ethiopia, also called woredas ( am, ወረዳ; ''woreda''), are the third level of the administrative divisions of Ethiopia – after ''zones'' and the '' regional states''.
These districts are further subdivided into a number of ...
, part of the region's
Awsi Rasu
Awsi Rasu, also known as Administrative Zone 1, is a zone in the Afar Region of Ethiopia. This zone is bordered on the south by Gabi Rasu, on the southwest by Hari Rasu, on the west by the Amhara Region, on the northwest by Fantí Rasu, on the ...
zone, the town has a latitude and longitude of and an elevation of .
Asaita was briefly the capital of the
Adal Sultanate
The Adal Sultanate, or the Adal Empire or the ʿAdal or the Bar Saʿad dīn (alt. spelling ''Adel Sultanate, ''Adal ''Sultanate'') () was a medieval Sunni Muslim Empire which was located in the Horn of Africa. It was founded by Sabr ad-Din ...
and
Imamate of Aussa The Imamate of Aussa also spelled Imamate of Awsa was a medieval Harari people, Harari imamate in present-day eastern Ethiopia with its capital in Asaita. It was carved out of the Sultanate of Harar and the Adal Sultanate.
History
This polity was ...
as well as seat of the
Aussa Sultanate
The Sultanate of Aussa was a kingdom that existed in the Afar Region in eastern Ethiopia in the 18th and 20th centuries.
It was considered to be the leading monarchy of the Afar people, to whom the other Afar rulers nominally acknowledged primac ...
, the chief
Afar monarchy, but is south by unpaved road from
Awash–
Asseb
Assab or Aseb (, ) is a port city in the Southern Red Sea Region of Eritrea. It is situated on the west coast of the Red Sea.
Languages spoken in Assab are predominantly Afar language, Afar, Tigrinya language, Tigrinya, and Arabic. Assab is known ...
highway. A telephone line from
Kombolcha
Kombolcha () is a town and district in north-central Ethiopia. Located in the Debub Wollo Zone of the Amhara Region, it has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation between 1842 and 1915 meters above sea level. Some guide books describe Ko ...
to Asaita was in operation in 1964.
["Local History in Ethiopia"]
(pdf) The Nordic Africa Institute website (accessed 21 November 2007) The town of
Semera
Samara ( aa, Samara; amh, ሰመራ) is the capital of Afar Region, Ethiopia. It is a town on the Awash–Assab highway in north-east Ethiopia, having been planned and built to replace Asaita. Located in Administrative Zone 1, Semara has a la ...
, a planned settlement situated squarely on this highway, at some point before 2007 became the new capital of the region.
To the southeast of Asaita, located at the southern edge of the
Danakil Desert
The Danakil Desert is a desert in northeast Ethiopia, southern Eritrea, and northwestern Djibouti. Situated in the Afar Triangle, it stretches across of arid terrain. It is inhabited by a few Afar, who engage in salt mining. The area is known f ...
, are a group of twenty
salt lake
A salt lake or saline lake is a landlocked body of water that has a concentration of salts (typically sodium chloride) and other dissolved minerals significantly higher than most lakes (often defined as at least three grams of salt per litre). ...
s which cover the territory to the border with neighboring
Djibouti
Djibouti, ar, جيبوتي ', french: link=no, Djibouti, so, Jabuuti officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red ...
. These lakes include
Lake Gummare
Lake Gummare is one of a chain of lakes into which the Awash River empties its waters. It is located at the eastern end of the Afar Region of Ethiopia.
Overview
The lake lies on a roughly north–south axis, 15 kilometers long by five wide, having ...
, known for its
flamingo
Flamingos or flamingoes are a type of Wader, wading bird in the Family (biology), family Phoenicopteridae, which is the only extant family in the order Phoenicopteriformes. There are four flamingo species distributed throughout the Americas ...
s, and
Lake Abbe
Lake Abbe, also known as Lake Abhe Bad, is a salt lake, lying on the Ethiopia-Djibouti border. It is one of a chain of six connected lakes, which also includes (from north to south) lakes Gargori, Laitali, Gummare, Bario and Afambo. The lake i ...
, the final destination of the
Awash River
The Awash (sometimes spelled Awaash; Oromo: ''Awaash'', Amharic: አዋሽ, Afar: ''We'ayot'', Somali: ''Webiga Dir'') is a major river of Ethiopia. Its course is entirely contained within the boundaries of Ethiopia and empties into a chain of ...
.
Based on figures from the
Central Statistical Agency
The Central Statistical Agency (CSA; Amharic: ማዕከላዊ ስታቲስቲክስ ኤጀንሲ) is an agency of the government of Ethiopia designated to provide all surveys and censuses for that country used to monitor economic and social growth ...
in 2005, the town has an estimated total population of 22,718, of whom 12,722 were males and 9,996 were females. According to the 1994 national census, the town had a population of 15,475.
History
![Asaita town](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/61/Asaita_town.jpg)
Aussa was once home to the extinct
Harla
The Harla, also known as Harala, or Arla, are an extinct ethnic group that once inhabited Djibouti, Ethiopia and northern Somalia. They spoke the now-extinct Harla language, which belonged to either the Cushitic or Semitic branches of the Afroas ...
people, their moniker still exists within clans in rural areas. Aussa is unique to the Afar region since it is the only area today that Afar people are engaged in agriculture. Farming was established by Harla as far back as the fourteenth century. The town also seems to have been a haven for mutineers of the
Harari kingdom early on. Aussa became prominent when it served as capital of the
Adal Sultanate
The Adal Sultanate, or the Adal Empire or the ʿAdal or the Bar Saʿad dīn (alt. spelling ''Adel Sultanate, ''Adal ''Sultanate'') () was a medieval Sunni Muslim Empire which was located in the Horn of Africa. It was founded by Sabr ad-Din ...
in 1577. After Adal's demise, the Imamate of Aussa was established by Hararis and continued ruling the southern parts of Afar region until they were overthrown in the eighteenth century by the
Mudaito dynasty of
Afar who later established the
Sultanate of Aussa
The Sultanate of Aussa was a kingdom that existed in the Afar Region in eastern Ethiopia in the 18th and 20th centuries.
It was considered to be the leading monarchy of the Afar people, to whom the other Afar rulers nominally acknowledged primac ...
.
Asaita was flooded by the
Awash River
The Awash (sometimes spelled Awaash; Oromo: ''Awaash'', Amharic: አዋሽ, Afar: ''We'ayot'', Somali: ''Webiga Dir'') is a major river of Ethiopia. Its course is entirely contained within the boundaries of Ethiopia and empties into a chain of ...
in August 1954, and again in September, 1998.
[
In late June 1971 a fight during the market between the Afar and highland people left 16 workers dead and 34 wounded. Of more than 1,000 small farmers who had moved from the highlands to Awsa there were only 250-300 still living in Asaita after the violence.][
In March 1975 the ]Derg
The Derg (also spelled Dergue; , ), officially the Provisional Military Administrative Council (PMAC), was the military junta that ruled Ethiopia, then including present-day Eritrea, from 1974 to 1987, when the military leadership formally " c ...
nationalized all rural lands, including those of Ras Bitwoded
Until the end of the Ethiopian monarchy in 1974, there were two categories of nobility in Ethiopia and Eritrea. The Mesafint ( gez, መሳፍንት , modern , singular መስፍን , modern , "prince"), the hereditary nobility, formed the upper ...
Alimirah Hanfadhe
''Bitwoded'' Sultan Alimirah Hanfare ( aa, Amyota Qali Mirac Canfaxe; 1919 - 25 April 2011) was Sultan of Aussa from 1944 until his death in 2011. He ascended to the throne after his predecessor and uncle, Mohammad Yayyo.
Loyal to his suzerai ...
, Sultan of the Afar. When they offered to fly him to Addis Ababa
Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...
to negotiate the transfer of his lands, he refused the offer. That June, the Derg dispatched a battalion of troops to capture the sultan. Although the Ottaways note their sources agree that the ensuing two-day battle was a "massacre", they differ in the details:
: The sultan claimed that the army killed as many as 1,000 Afar in the attack and alleged that airplanes and armoured cars had been used. The government said that the massacre was carried out by the sultan's forces which incited the Afar to turn against non-Afar highland plantation workers at Dit Bahari, killing 221 persons. Probably the death toll lay somewhere between the two figures and the victims included both Afar and highlanders.
Jon Kalb
Jon Kalb August 17, 1941 (Houston, Texas) - October 27, 2017 (Austin, Texas) was a research geologist with the Vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory (Texas Memorial Museum), University of Texas at Austin. He received a pre-doctoral fellowship from t ...
, who was working in the Afar region at the time, provides a narrative which reconciles the two accounts. According to Kalb, Ras Alimirah had fled in May across the border to Djibouti, where his brother-in-law was in charge.
: Apparently the flight coincided with a preemptive strike by the Afar on several key bridges and military garrisons to aid the Sultan's limirahescape. The ensuing attack on the Tendaho Plantation by the Afar, and the killing of the several hundred highlanders, may have also been a spontaneous reaction by the Awsa population to the news that the Sultan had been forced to flee. Whatever the cause, the retaliation by the military was predictably brutal. A battalion of troops was sent to Awsa... nda two-day battle ensued, during which a reported 1000 Afar were killed in and around Aysaita.
Following the fall of the Derg
The Derg (also spelled Dergue; , ), officially the Provisional Military Administrative Council (PMAC), was the military junta that ruled Ethiopia, then including present-day Eritrea, from 1974 to 1987, when the military leadership formally " c ...
, Ras Alimirah, who had in the meantime founded the Afar Liberation Front
The Afar Liberation Front (abbreviated ALF) is an Afar political party and former militant group in Ethiopia. It fought the communist Derg government and the People's Democratic Republic of Ethiopia from 1975 to 1991. After the Ethiopian Civil ...
(ALF), returned to Asaita with his son, Hanfadhe Alimirah. However, on 8 November 1995, (EPRDF) troops surrounded their family residence in Assayita, then after exchanging gunfire overpowered Alimirah's guards, and entered the residence, where they confiscated weapons and other items. According to observers, this action against the Sultan and the ALF was another effort to reduce his influence in the Afar Region. Despite the EPRDF's persistent efforts to bring the group under its control, the ALF is said to have remained independent.["EPRDF Troops Stormed Ali Mirah's Residence", ''Ethiopian Review'', vol. 6 issue 1 (31 January 1996), p. 10 (accessed 15 August 2009 from Ethnic NewsWatch, Document ID: 494389831)]
Climate
Asaita is located in the central of Afar Region
The Afar Region (; aa, Qafar Rakaakayak; am, አፋር ክልል), formerly known as Region 2, is a regional state in northeastern Ethiopia and the homeland of the Afar people. Its capital is the planned city of Semera, which lies on the paved ...
.
Notes
{{Cities of Ethiopia
Populated places in the Afar Region