Zalambessa (

Tigrigna (; also spelled Tigrigna) is an Ethio-Semitic language commonly spoken Eritrea and in northern Ethiopia's Tigray Region by the Tigrinya and Tigrayan peoples. It is also spoken by the global diaspora of these regions. History and literature ...

: ዛላምበሳ) is a town located in 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 ...

. Zalambessa is part of the Misraqawi (Eastern) Zone 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 is ...

. It is about 42 kilometers north of Adigrat. The Serha-Zalambesa border crossing is located in the town.

History

Origins

Zalambessa was a village that was fortified by Italian colonial forces.

20th Century

The fortifications were taken over by the Ethiopian military in 1952 when

Eritrea Eritrea ( ; ti, ኤርትራ, Ertra, ; ar, إرتريا, ʾIritriyā), officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of Eastern Africa, with its capital and largest city at Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia ...

was federated with

. The older village (Tsorona) remained under Eritrean Administration. During the

Ethiopian Civil War The Ethiopian Civil War was a civil war in Ethiopia and present-day Eritrea, fought between the Ethiopian military junta known as the Derg and Ethiopian-Eritrean anti-government rebels from 12 September 1974 to 28 May 1991. The Derg overthre ...

, on 15 November 1989, Zalambessa was bombed from the air by the

Ethiopian Air Force The Ethiopian Air Force (ETAF) () is the air service branch of the Ethiopian National Defence Force. The ETAF is tasked with protecting the national air space, providing support to ground forces, as well as assisting civil operations during natio ...

; no fatalities reported. The exact border became an issue before and during the Eritrean-Ethiopian War (1998–2000). After the war, the town was in ruins.

21st Century

In 2000, Eritrea and Ethiopia signed the

Algiers Agreement (2000) The Algiers Agreement was a peace agreement between the governments of Eritrea and Ethiopia that was signed on 12 December 2000, at Algiers, Algeria, to formally end the Eritrean–Ethiopian War, a border war fought by the two countries from 1998 to ...

which forwarded the border dispute to a

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

boundary commission. In the Agreement both parties agreed in advance to comply with the ruling of the Border Commission. In 2002, the commission ruling, reconfirmed and made more precise in their final ruling effective November 2007, placed

Tsorona Tsorona ( Ge’ez : ጾሮና) is a subregion in the southern Debub region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human im ...

inside Eritrean territory, and Zalambessa inside Ethiopian territory. According to the Eritrean Information Ministry, Ethiopian Forces crossed the border early on New Years Day 2010, and engaged in a fierce battle with Eritrean troops before quickly withdrawing back over the border, after having 10 soldiers killed and 2 taken prisoner. Ethiopian government spokesman Bereket Simon denied that any armed incursion had taken place.

Economy

Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh

Nasser Mohammed Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah Nasser Al-Mohammed Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah ( ar, الشيخ ناصر المحمد الأحمد الجابر الصباح, ash-Shaykh Nāṣir Muḥammad al-ʾAḥmad al-Jābir aṣ-Ṣabāḥ, born 22 December 1940) is a Kuwaiti politician who ...

announced in July 2009, during a 3-day visit to Ethiopia, that his country would provide a $63 million loan to Ethiopia, part of which would be used to build a road between

Wukro Wukro (Tigrigna: ውቕሮ) (also known as Wukro Kilte Awulaelo; Tigrigna: ውቕሮ ክልተ ኣውላዕሎ) (also transliterated Wuqro; is a town and separate woreda in Tigray, Ethiopia. Wukro is located along Genfel River, in the Misraqaw ...

and Zalambessa. On 11 September 2018, the Serha-Zalambesa border crossing of Eritrea-Ethiopia border reopens for the first time since 1998.

Demographics

Based on figures from Ethiopia 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 released in 2005, Zalambessa has an estimated total population of 10,551, of whom 5,176 are men and 5,375 are women. The 1994 census reported it had a total population of 6,059 of whom 2,756 were males and 3,303 were females. It is not clear whether these census figures cover the entire area.

Economy

The Commercial Bank of Ethiopia re-opened its Zalambessa Branch in on 12 February, 2009.

References

{{reflist Populated places in the Tigray Region Subdivisions of Ethiopia