Berhale (also transliterated Berahle and Berahile) is a town in north-eastern

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 ...

. Located in

Kilbet Rasu Kilbatti (Kilbat) Rasu, also known as Administrative Zone 2, is one of the five zones in the Afar Region of Ethiopia. This zone is bordered on the south by Awsi Rasu, on the southwest by Fantí Rasu, on the west by the Tigray Region, and on 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 pave ...

, this town has a latitude and longitude of with an altitude of 639 meters above sea level. It is the largest town in Berhale

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 ...

. Philip Briggs describes this town as an "unexpectedly large and attractive town, set in a valley below stark twin peaks", which although "neither truly of the highlands nor truly of the desert" Berhale, "with its combination of typically Tigrayan stone houses and more austere Afar huts...is an agreeable point of transition between the two natural realms." This town was reported as having phone service by 2004; electrical service was introduced in September 2006, when the

Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation Ethiopian Electric Power () is an Ethiopian electrical power industry and state-owned electric producer. It is engaged in development, investment, construction, operation, and management of power plants, power generation and power transmission. Th ...

installed a 120 kilowatt generator, street lights, and 200 electric meters. At the time, electrical service was provided from 6 pm to midnight.

History

Records at the

Nordic Africa Institute Nordic Africa Institute ( sv, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet) serves as a research, documentation and information centre on modern Africa for the Nordic countries. The Institute also encourages research and studies on Africa. The institute was founded ...

website provide details of a primary school in Berhale during the year 1968. Five British citizens and their Ethiopian guides were kidnapped 4 March 2007 after visiting Berhale.

Tigray War

In January 2022,

Tigray People's Liberation Front The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF; ti, ህዝባዊ ወያነ ሓርነት ትግራይ, lit=Popular Struggle for the Freedom of Tigray), also called the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front, is a left-wing ethnic nationalist paramilitar ...

shelled Berhale as part of an offensive into Afar during the

Tigray War The Tigray War; ; . was an armed conflict that lasted from 3 November 2020 to 3 November 2022. The war was primarily fought in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia between the Ethiopian federal government and Eritrea on one side, and the Tigray Peop ...

. Many people fled towards the regional capital 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 ...

as refugees. On February 23 of that same year, militants entered an Eritrean refugee camp, killing at least five people. Thousands were displaced and several women were abducted. Several refugees were separated from their families during the attack and experienced emotional distress. While no organization claimed responsibility, the Tigray People's Liberation Front was widely suspected of being responsible. The United Nations later acknowledged the attack in a statement. The

Addis Standard ''Addis Standard'' is an Ethiopian monthly social, economic and political news magazine published and distributed by Jakenn Publishing Plc, and was established in February 2011 by Tsedale Lemma. The magazine has an independent political stance. ...

estimated a month later that 43,000 people had been displaced from the settlement during the war.

Demographics

According to the 2007 census conducted by 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 growt ...

, Berhale has a total population of 6,098, of whom 3,563 are men and 2,535 women. A total of 863 households were counted in this woreda, resulting in an average of 7.1 persons to a household, and 807 housing units."Census 2007 Tables: Afar Region"
, Tables 2.2, Appendix 1A CSA website (accessed 27 August 2010)

Notes

Populated places in the Afar Region {{Afar-geo-stub 2022 massacres of the Tigray War Massacres committed by the Tigray Defense Forces