Gewane Gewane is a town in north-eastern Ethiopia. Located in Administrative Zone 3 of the Afar Region, it has an elevation of 618 meters above sea level. Gewane is locally known as New Gewane, 2 kilometers east of the original settlement known as Old ...

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 Administrative Zone 3 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 ...

, it has an elevation of 618 meters above sea level. Gewane is locally known as New Gewane, 2 kilometers east of the original settlement known as Old Gewane; the town was relocated astride the main, all-weather highway. It is the administrative center of

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 ...

Overview

Philip Briggs has described Gewane as "a somewhat unremarkable urban sprawl, distinguished only by the imposing presence of Mount Azelu, an isolated peak of volcanic origin which rises almost 1,000m above the surrounding plains east of the town." The headquarters of the

Yangudi Rassa National Park Yangudi Rassa National Park ( am, ያንጉዲ ራሳ ብሔራዊ ፓርክ, translit=yanigudī rasa biḥērawī pariki) is a national park in Ethiopia located in Afar Region. Geography Its of territory include Mount Yangudi () near the souther ...

are located in Gewane. The British explorer L.M. Nesbitt, who travelled through the area in 1928, described his stay of a couple of days in a village in Gewane, entertained by the local chief Abdul Momi, whom he described as "the Falstaff of Gewani". The

Afar National Liberation Movement Afar may refer to: Peoples and languages * Afar language, an East Cushitic language *Afar people, an ethnic group of Djibouti, Eritrea, and Ethiopia Places Horn of Africa *Afar Desert or Danakil Desert, a desert in Ethiopia *Afar Region, a regio ...

(ANLM), run by young intellectuals who had split from 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 Civi ...

(ALF), met in Gewane with 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 ...

in April 1976 at an Afar congress. Afterwards a number of ANLM members were appointed to local administrative positions, which weakened both the ALF's military activity and political influence amongst the Afar. The weekly newspaper ''Tobiya'' reported in January 1996 that three high ranking employees of the Water Resource and Development Authority had been killed near the town.

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, this town has an estimated total population of 11,032, of whom 6,304 are men and 4,728 are women. According to the 1996 national census this town had a population of 8,600.The results of the 1994 census in the Afar Region were not satisfactory, so the census was repeated in 1996.

References

{{reflist, 2 Populated places in the Afar Region