Kemise (; ) is a town and administrative seat of the

Oromia Zone The Oromia Zone ( om, Godina Oromiyaa; Amharic: ኦሮሚያ ዞን) is a zone in Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Oromia is named for the Oromo people, who settled along the edge of the Ethiopian Highlands that form this Zone. Oromia Zone is bordered ...

in the

Amhara Region The Amhara Region ( am, አማራ ክልል, Åmara Kilil), officially the Amhara National Regional State (), is a regional state in northern Ethiopia and the homeland of the Amhara people. Its capital is Bahir Dar which is the seat of the Reg ...

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 ...

. Kemise is northeast of the Ethiopian capital,

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 ...

and has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 1424 meters above sea level. It was part of the former

Chaffa Gola Dewerahmedo Chaffa Gola Dewerahmedo ("Chaffa Gola and Dewerahmedo") was a woreda in the Amhara Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Oromia Zone, Chaffa Gola Dewerahmedo was bordered on the south by Artuma Fursi Jilee, on the southwest by the Semien Shewa Zone (Amh ...

district and is now surrounded by the

Dawa Chaffa Dawa Chaffa is a district located in the Oromia Zone of the Amhara region of Ethiopia. Dawa Chaffa () is bordered on the south by Artuma Fursi, on the southwest by the Semien Shewa Zone, on the northwest by the Debub Wollo Zone, on the northeas ...

district.

Overview

Around Kemise are three villages with

mosque A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...

s, reachable only by footpaths: Dewe Rahmedo, about 20 kilometers from Kemise;

Shonke Shonke (Amharic: ሾንኬ) is an Argobba village located some 23 km away from Kemise town, in Jirota kebele, in the current administrative district of Dawa Chefe, Oromia Zone of Amhara Region, Ethiopia. The village was part of former Che ...

, 23 kilometers away; and about 12 kilometers south of Kemise there is a footpath to the east after another 5 kilometers arrives at Tiru Sina. There are allegedly

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

monasteries for men and women around this town, with their members living in round huts distributed in the landscape, separated from each other in the same way as Christian monks and nuns. On 19 January 2002 one person was killed during a clash between Muslims and

Christians Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

in Kemise. According to police reports, they arrested several persons for organizing the disruption or throwing rocks at the procession; however, all of those arrested subsequently were released. The person responsible for the death had not been identified by the year's end.

Demographics

Based on the 2007 national 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 growth ...

of Ethiopia (CSA), this town has a total population of 19,420, of whom 9,782 are men and 9,638 women. The majority of the inhabitants were

, with 90% reporting that as their religion, while 10% of the population said they practiced

Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church ( am, የኢትዮጵያ ኦርቶዶክስ ተዋሕዶ ቤተ ክርስቲያን, ''Yäityop'ya ortodoks täwahedo bétäkrestyan'') is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. One of the few Chris ...

. The 1994 census reported this town had a total population of 10,822 of whom 5341 were men and 5481 women.

History

21st century

Starting on 18 March 2021 clashes broke out in the city of Ataye after Amhara Special Forces shot a person at the steps of the main mosque in the city. From there clashes, riots, and pogroms perpetrated by

Fano Fano is a town and ''comune'' of the province of Pesaro and Urbino in the Marche region of Italy. It is a beach resort southeast of Pesaro, located where the ''Via Flaminia'' reaches the Adriatic Sea. It is the third city in the region by popula ...

and Oromo militias spread throughout the Oromia Zone eventually making its way to the town of Kemise where extensive damage was done. The clashes finally ended on 31 March killing 303 people. It's alleged that Eritrean troops were involved in the clashes. 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 ...

, on 31 October 2021, the

Oromo Liberation Army The Oromo Liberation Army (OLA; , WBO) is an armed opposition group active in the Oromia Region of Ethiopia. The OLA consist primarily of former armed members of the pre-peace deal OLF who refused to disarm out of skepticism of the peace deal, ...

(OLA) said they captured Kemise, on the same day that the

Tigray Defense Forces The Tigray Defense Forces ( ti, ሓይልታት ምክልኻል ትግራይ, italic=no; TDF: ሓምት), colloquially ''Tigray Army'' () is a paramilitary rebel group in Tigray. It was founded by distant former generals of Ethiopia in 2020 t ...

(TDF) also claimed to have captured

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 ...

, 53 km (33 miles) to the north.

Notes

{{Districts of the Amhara Region Populated places in the Amhara Region