Dewele (French ''Douanlé'' or ''Daouenlé'') is a town in

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 ...

, near to the Ethiopia and

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 ...

border. Located in the

Shinile Zone Sitti Zone ( so, Gobolka Sitti), formerly known as Shinile, is a zone in Somali Region of Ethiopia. Located at the northwestern point of the Somali Region and stretching across the savanna north of the Ahmar Mountains, Sitti is bordered on th ...

in the

Somali Region The Somali Region ( so, Deegaanka Soomaalida, am, ሱማሌ ክልል, Sumalē Kilil, ar, المنطقة الصومالية), also known as Soomaali Galbeed (''Western Somalia'') and officially the Somali Regional State, is a regional state ...

the town has a longitude and latitude of with an elevation of 898 meters above sea level. Nearby towns and villages include

Dikhil Dikhil ( ar, دخيل) is a town in the western Dikhil Region of Djibouti. Lying east of Lake Abbe, It is situated about southwest of Djibouti City and north of the border with Ethiopia. It serves as the administrative centre of the Dikhil Re ...

(66 km),

Ali Sabieh Ali Sabieh ( so, Cali Sabiix, ar, علي صبيح) is the second largest city in Djibouti. It is situated about Southwest of Djibouti City and north of the border with Ethiopia. It sprawls on a wide basin surrounded by granitic mountains on all ...

(17 km), Guelile (7 km) and

Assamo Assamo ( ar, أسامو), also known as Ina ‘Assamo, It is located around south of the capital, Djibouti City. The surrounding district is rich in both livestock and fledgeling agriculture. Its population, with the nomadic and semi-nomadic neig ...

(9 km) in Djibouti, and Ferate (11 km) and

Lasarat Lasarat (also known as Laso Harrad) is a town in eastern Ethiopia. Located in the Shinile Zone of the Somali Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation between 740 and 817 meters above sea level. Lasarat is served by a ...

in Ethiopia. Dewele is served by a station on the Addis Ababa - Djibouti Railway as well as on the

Ethio-Djibouti Railways The Ethio-Djibouti Railway (french: Chemin de Fer Djibouto-Éthiopien, C.D.E.; ) is a metre gauge railway in the Horn of Africa that once connected Addis Ababa to the port city of Djibouti. The operating company was also known as the Ethio- ...

. It serves as an official crossing point between Djibouti and Ethiopia, with a

customs Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out of a country. Traditionally, customs ...

post. In the mid-1960s,

gypsum Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard or sidewalk chalk, and drywall. ...

was excavated near the town, then transported to a factory in

Dire Dawa Dire Dawa ( am, ድሬዳዋ, om, Dirree Dhawaa, 3=Place of Remedy; so, Diridhaba, meaning "where Dir hit his spear into the ground" or "The true Dir", ar, ديري داوا,) is a city in eastern Ethiopia near the Oromia and Somali Re ...

to be used in the manufacture cement and plaster of Paris."Local History in Ethiopia"
The Nordic Africa Institute website (accessed 23 July 1009)

History

Dewele was the first point inside the boundaries of Ethiopia to receive train service by the Ethio-Djibouti Railways. The first train ran between

Djibouti City Djibouti (also called Djibouti City and in many early English texts and on many early maps, Jibuti; so, Magaalada Jabuuti, french: link=no, Ville de Djibouti, ar, مدينة جيبوتي, aa, Gabuutî Magaala) is the eponymous capital of Dji ...

and Dewele on 22 July 1901, requiring 5½ hours to make the trip with four halts for water. In 1907, the Englishmen Bentley and Wells drove a Siddeley automobile from the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; T ...

coast 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 ...

. They feigned to go to

Jaldessa Jaldessa ("Jal-de-ssa" which in Oromo literally translates to "Monkeys due to the monkeys surrounding the area") is a village in eastern Ethiopia, located in the Shinile Zone of the Somali Region of Ethiopia. The Central Statistical Agency has n ...

but headed for Dewele instead, to mislead potential ''

shifta Shifta is a term used in East Africa meaning ''rebel'', ''outlaw'', or ''bandit''. The Swahili word was loaned from the Somali shufta during the Shifta War, which is in turn derived from Amharic ሽፍታ (šəfta). Historically, the shifta served ...

'' or bandits. During the Djibouti Civil War, Ethiopians who were living in that country and worked in various sectors were forced by the Djiboutian Armed Force to leave that country with whatever they could quickly gather. By February 2001, many had taken refuge in and around Dewele.

Climate

Dewele has a

hot desert climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk''), is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...

(''BWh'') in Köppen-Geiger system.

Demographics

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, Dewele has an estimated total population of 3,357, of whom 1,710 were males and 1,647 were females. The 1997 census reported Dewele had a total population of 2,253 of whom 1,130 were men and 1,123 women. The four largest ethnic groups reported in this town were the Somali (42.21%), the Oromo (27.43%), the Amhara (20.9%), and the

Gurage The Gurage (, Gurage: ጉራጌ) are a Semitic-speaking ethnic group inhabiting Ethiopia.G. W. E. Huntingford, "William A. Shack: The Gurage: a people of the ensete culture" They inhabit the Gurage Zone, a fertile, semi-mountainous region in c ...

(6.52%); all other ethnic groups made up 2.94% of the population.''1994 Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia: Results for Somali Region, Vol. 1''
Tables 2.4, 2.14 (accessed 10 January 2009). The results of the 1994 census in the Somali Region were not satisfactory, so the census was repeated in 1997. It is one of four towns in Ayesha

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 ...

. The town's inhabitants belong to various mainly

Afro-Asiatic The Afroasiatic languages (or Afro-Asiatic), also known as Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic, and sometimes also as Afrasian, Erythraean or Lisramic, are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the geographic su ...

-speaking ethnic groups, with the Issa Somali predominant.

References

{{coord, 11, 02, 05, N, 42, 37, 53, E, region:ET_type:city, display=title Populated places in the Somali Region Djibouti–Ethiopia border crossings

History

Climate

Demographics

See also

References