Danan () (or "Denan") is a town in the eastern part of

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

known as the

Ogaden Ogaden (pronounced and often spelled ''Ogadēn''; , ) is one of the historical names used for the modern Somali Region. It is also natively referred to as Soomaali Galbeed (). The region forms the eastern portion of Ethiopia and borders Somalia ...

. Located in the

Gode Zone Shabelle is one of nine Zones of the Somali Region of Ethiopia. It was previously known as Gode (, ), so named after its largest city, Gode. Shabelle is bordered on the west by Afder, on the north by Fiq, on the northeast by Korahe. On the s ...

of the

Somali Region The Somali Region (, , ), also known as Soomaali Galbeed () and officially the Somali Regional State, is a Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in eastern Ethiopia. It is the largest region of Ethiopia. The state borders the Ethiopian regions ...

(or ''kilil''), and it is located the main road between

Gode Gode (, ) is a city in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. Located in the Shabelle Zone, the city was the capital of the Somali Region until 1995 when Jijiga became the capital Gode Airport, also known as the Ugas Mirad Airport (IATA code GDE) ...

and

Kebri Dahar Qabridahare (Amharic: ቀብሪ ደሓር) is a city in the eastern part of Ethiopia known as the Somali region. Located in the Korahe Zone of the Somali region, this town has a latitude and longitude of and an elevation of 1609 meters above ...

(Qabridahare) the nearest towns with electricity. This town was settled in 1911, and took the name of the district in 1935 during Emperor Haile-silase's rule of Ethiopia. This town has a latitude and longitude of .

Overview

Danan has a camp for refugees and internally displaced persons. The Ogaden region is populated mostly by ethnic Somalis and has been devastated by drought, famine and an armed separatist movement. Temperatures in Danan soar daily to well over 110 degrees creating some of the most unbearable living conditions in all of Africa. The Denan Project, the only humanitarian organization in the town, was founded to provide qualified medical care to the people of Danan. Its hospital is the only free acute medical care in the Ogaden region which is populated by 5 million people. The

Ethiopian Roads Authority The Ethiopian Road Transport Authority (Amharic: የኢትዮጵያ መንገዶች ባለስልጣን, formerly called Road Transport Administration or RTA) is a public transport authority based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Ethiopia, offici ...

announced in November 2007 a construction project to connect Danan with

with 95 kilometers of paved road and construction of six large and medium bridges.

History

Danan fell to the

Italians Italians (, ) are a European peoples, European ethnic group native to the Italian geographical region. Italians share a common Italian culture, culture, History of Italy, history, Cultural heritage, ancestry and Italian language, language. ...

in January, 1936 as part of the

Second Italo-Abyssinian War The Second Italo-Ethiopian War, also referred to as the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, was a war of aggression waged by Italy against Ethiopia, which lasted from October 1935 to February 1937. In Ethiopia it is often referred to simply as the Ita ...

. As part of the reprisals for the attempted assassination of General

Rodolfo Graziani Rodolfo Graziani, 1st Marquis of Neghelli ( , ; 11 August 1882 – 11 January 1955), was an Italian military officer in the Kingdom of Italy's Royal Italian Army, Royal Army, primarily noted for his campaigns in Africa before and during World Wa ...

(19 February 1937), it was used as a prison camp for hundreds of people arrested as part of the reprisals. While Ethiopian sources state of 6500 internees held there 3175 died, contemporary Italian reports claim that much fewer were ill and only a handful died. Alberto Sbacchi concludes from these conflicting reports that while "the occurrence of illness and death is difficult to determine, but we can assume that many suffered and died. Graziani's order to supply them with only enough food to live strongly suggests it, as do the conditions under which the Ethiopians were confined. Poor facilities, including latrines, the humid climate, malaria, stomach infections, and venereal disease took many lives, especially among those compelled to work on the irrigation canal or on the banana and sugar-cane plantation." In January 2009, the foreign relations chief of the

Ogaden National Liberation Front The Ogaden National Liberation Front, abbreviated ONLF, (, JWXO; ) is a Somali nationalist armed and political organization seeking self-determination for the Somali-inhabited Ogaden (Somali region) of eastern Ethiopia. Founded in 1984 by forme ...

, Mohammed Sirad, was killed by the

Ethiopian Army The Ethiopian Army () is the land service branch of the Ethiopian National Defense Force. It is the senior of the two uniformed military branches. The force engages in land warfare and combined arms operations, including armored and mechanize ...

at Danan where he was meeting with other ONLF members.

Demographics

Based on figures from the

Central Statistical Agency The Central Statistical Agency, also known as the Ethiopian Statistical Service (ESS; Amharic: የኢትዮጵያ ስታቲስቲክስ አገልግሎት), is an Ethiopian government agency designated to provide all surveys and censuses for that ...

in 2018 projection, Danan has an estimated total population of 87,380, of whom 49,703 are men and 37,677 are women. The 1997 census reported this town had a total population of 34,428, of whom 20,038 were men and 14,390 women. The largest ethnic group reported in this town was the Somali (99.96%).''1994 Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia: Results for Somali Region, Vol. 1''
Tables 2.4, 2.13 (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 the largest settlement in Danan

woreda Districts of Ethiopia, also called woredas (; ''woreda''), are the third level of the administrative divisions of Ethiopia – after ''List of zones of Ethiopia, zones'' and the ''Regions of Ethiopia, regional states''. These districts are f ...

Notes

External links

The Denan Project Website

Dhanaan Website
{{Authority control Populated places in the Somali Region