Idaga Hamus (also called Edaga Hamus and Sewha Sa'isi'e) is a town in the

Saesi Tsaedaemba Saesi Tsaedaemba () is one of the Districts of Ethiopia, or ''woredas'', in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Located in the Misraqawi Zone at the eastern edge of the Ethiopian highlands, Saesi Tsaedaemba is bordered on the south by Kilte Awulaelo, o ...

woreda of

Misraqawi Zone The Eastern Zone () is a zone in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. It is bordered on the east by the Afar Region, on the south by the South Eastern Zone, on the west by the Central Zone and on the north by Eritrea. Its highest point is Mount Asimb ...

of the

Tigray Region The Tigray Region, officially the Tigray National Regional State, is the northernmost regional state in Ethiopia. The Tigray Region is the homeland of the Tigrayan, Irob, and Kunama people. Its capital and largest city is Mekelle. Tigray ...

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 ...

. It is located 97 kilometers north of

Mekelle Mekelle ( ti, መቐለ, am, መቀሌ, mäqälle, mek’elē) or Mekele is a special zone and capital of the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Mekelle was formerly the capital of Enderta awraja in Tigray. It is located around north of the Ethiopi ...

on "National Road 1" (now

Ethiopian Highway 2 The A2 Highway is a trunk road in Ethiopia. It connects the capital Addis Ababa with Mekelle, as well as with Wukro, Adigrat, Axum, Shire and Humera. Ethiopian the A2 has a length of . Route Towns and cities along the A2 include, from nort ...

), between

Freweyni Freweyni (also known as Sinkata) is a town in northern Ethiopia. Located 80 kilometers north of Mekele in the Misraqawi Zone of the Tigray Region (or ''kilil'') of Ethiopia, this town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 2480 met ...

and

Adigrat Adigrat (, ''ʿaddigrat'', also called ʿAddi Grat) is a city and separate woreda in Tigray Region of Ethiopia. It is located in the Misraqawi Zone at longitude and latitude , with an elevation of above sea level and below a high ridge to the we ...

Geology and soils

The following geological formations are present in this locality: *

Adigrat Sandstone The Adigrat Sandstone formation in north Ethiopia, in a wide array of reddish colours, comprises sandstones with coarse to fine grains, and locally conglomerates, silt- and claystones. Given the many lateritic palaeosols and locally fossil wood ...

Enticho Sandstone The Enticho Sandstone is a geological formation in north Ethiopia. It forms the lowermost sedimentary rock formation in the region and lies directly on the basement rocks. Enticho Sandstone consists of arenite that is rich in quartz. The formation ...

The main

geomorphic Geomorphology (from Ancient Greek: , ', "earth"; , ', "form"; and , ', "study") is the scientific study of the origin and evolution of topographic and bathymetric features created by physical, chemical or biological processes operating at or ...

units, with corresponding soil types are: *

plateau ** Associated soil types *** shallow sandy soils with an indurated layer which prevents rooting and drainage (Petric

Plinthosol Plinthosols are iron-rich soils characterized by the presence of plinthite, petroplinthite or pisoliths. Distribution Softer plinthosols are common in the wet tropics, including in the eastern Amazon basin, the central Congo Basin The Cong ...

) *** moderately deep, (light) brown, loamy to loamy sandy soil (Chromic

Cambisol A Cambisol in the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) is a soil in the beginning of soil formation. The horizon differentiation is weak. This is evident from weak, mostly brownish discolouration and/or structure formation in the soil pr ...

, Arenic

Luvisol Luvisols are a group of soils, comprising one of the 32 Reference Soil Groups in the international system of soil classification, the World Reference Base for Soil Resources The World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) is an international so ...

, Arenic

Lixisol Lixisols are a Reference Soil Group of the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB). They are soils with subsurface accumulation of low activity clays and high base saturation. They develop under intensive tropical weathering conditions and sub ...

) ** Inclusions *** complex of rock outcrops, very stony and very shallow soils ((Lithic)

Leptosol A Leptosol in the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) is a very shallow soil over hard rock or a deeper soil that is extremely gravelly and/or stony. Leptosols cover approximately 1.7 billion hectares of the Earth's surface. They are ...

) *** shallow, stony, dark greyish brown clay loams and sandy loams (Eutric

Regosol A Regosol in the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) is very weakly developed mineral soil in unconsolidated materials. Regosols are extensive in eroding lands, in particular in arid and semi-arid areas and in mountain regions. Internat ...

and

) ***

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...

s of floodplains with very high

watertable The water table is the upper surface of the zone of saturation. The zone of saturation is where the pores and fractures of the ground are saturated with water. It can also be simply explained as the depth below which the ground is saturated. T ...

with moderate to good natural fertility (Eutric

Gleysol A gleysol is a wetland soil (hydric soil) that, unless drained, is saturated with groundwater for long enough to develop a characteristic colour pattern. The pattern is essentially made up of reddish, brownish, or yellowish colours at surfaces o ...

, Gleyic

) * Idaga Hamus highlands ** Associated soil types *** shallow, very stony, silt loamy to loamy soils (Skeletic

, Leptic

, Skeletic

) *** shallow, stony, dark greyish brown clay loams and sandy loams (Eutric

and

) *** sandy clay loams to sands developed on sandy colluvium (Eutric

Arenosol In USDA soil taxonomy, a Psamment is defined as an Entisol which consists basically of unconsolidated sand deposits,Regosol A Regosol in the World Reference Base for Soil Resources (WRB) is very weakly developed mineral soil in unconsolidated materials. Regosols are extensive in eroding lands, in particular in arid and semi-arid areas and in mountain regions. Internat ...

, Cambisol) ** Inclusions *** complex of rock outcrops, very stony and very shallow soils ((Lithic)

) *** Deep dark cracking

s with very good natural fertility, waterlogged during the wet season (Chromic

Vertisol A vertisol, or vertosol, is a soil type in which there is a high content of expansive clay minerals, many of them known as montmorillonite, that form deep cracks in drier seasons or years. In a phenomenon known as argillipedoturbation, alternate ...

, Pellic

) *** moderately deep, brown silty loamy to loamy soils (Eutric

)

Monuments

A number of rock-hewn churches have been reported near this town which include: Debre Zakarios Giyorgis and Cherqos, a collapsed one at Dengelat, Guwahigot Yesus and Yohannes."Local History in Ethiopia"
(pdf) The Nordic Africa Institute website (accessed 6 May 2008) The contemporary church of Maryam Techot in this town is located on the top of a stepped

Aksumite The Kingdom of Aksum ( gez, መንግሥተ አክሱም, ), also known as the Kingdom of Axum or the Aksumite Empire, was a kingdom centered in Northeast Africa and South Arabia from Classical antiquity to the Middle Ages. Based primarily in wh ...

platform about 2 meters high and with dressed-stone corner blocks. A monolithic pillar and other carved fragments in the area may have been salvaged from the Aksumite structure which originally stood on this platform.

History

Records at the Nordic Africa Institute website provide details of the primary school in 1968. Idaga Hamus sheltered a significant number of refugees during the Eritrean-Ethiopian War of 1998-2000. During the 2020-2021

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 ...

, attacks were carried out on Idaga Hamus by the joint Ethiopian and Eritrean armies. On 18 December 2020, an

EEPA The Europe External Programme with Africa and Europe External Policy Advisors, both called EEPA, are two closely associated Belgian-based non-governmental organizations that aim to encourage the European Union's involvement in human rights in ge ...

report stated that 37 civilians were killed by Eritrean troops in Mariam Dengelat. This follows further reports of Ethiopian ENDF soldiers shooting at unarmed civilians.Situation Report EEPA HORN No. 30 - 19 December
Europe External Programme with Africa On 19 December 2020, killings occurred in Idaga Hamus. Eritrean soldiers killed approximately 150 civilians, including a priest and women seeking refuge in a church, located 4 km to the west of Marieam Dengelat. The town and some rural villages ( Maimegelta, Dengelat, Tsa'a and Hangoda) are under the control of Eritrean forces. The military is slaughtering the animals. People are starving to death.Situation Report EEPA HORN No. 31 - 20 December
Europe External Programme with Africa

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 growt ...

in 2005, Idaga Hamus has an estimated total population of 8,474 of whom 3,962 are men and 4,512 are women.CSA 2005 National Statistics
, Table B.4 The 1994 census reported it had a total population of 4,883 of whom 2,110 were males and 2,773 were females. Together with Freweyni, it is one larger settlements in

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 ...

Notes

{{reflist Populated places in the Tigray Region