Dela or Dala is a town in southern

Tigray The Tigray Region (or simply Tigray; officially the Tigray National Regional State) is the northernmost Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in Ethiopia. The Tigray Region is the homeland of the Tigrayan, Irob people, Irob and Kunama people. I ...

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 ...

. It is one of the larger towns in the

Alaje Alaje () is a Districts of Ethiopia, District of Ethiopia, or ''woreda'', in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Debubawi Zone, Alaje is bordered on the south by Endamehoni, on the southwest by the Amhara Region, on the north by Debub Misra ...

district A district is a type of administrative division that in some countries is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municip ...

. Historically, Dela was the administrative and capital city of Bora-Selewa woreda, which was part of

Enderta province Enderta or Inderta () is a former Provinces of Ethiopia, historical province of Ethiopia; it is located in the eastern edge of the Tigray Region, Tigray highlands. Enderta is bordered on the west by Tembien Province, Tembien, on the south and sout ...

, when Enderta was an independent province as well as an awraja as recent as the late 1990s.Sarah Vaughan, ''Ethnicity and Power in Ethiopia'', PhD dissertation, p. 123, 2003

History

Della was where the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

aggression dominance was defeated basically at the nearby mountain known as "Emba Alaje" during the second invasion in 1941. It was also the last hiding place of King "Lij Eyasu", niece of Emperor II Minilik, until his own servant leaked and exposed him to

Haile Selassie Haile Selassie I (born Tafari Makonnen or ''Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles#Lij, Lij'' Tafari; 23 July 189227 August 1975) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974. He rose to power as the Ethiopian aristocratic and court titles, Rege ...

during the first quarter of the 20th century. It is a place where the previous dictatorial military regime of Ethiopia, Derg, never fully controlled. In line with that opportunity, a number of residents have been part of the struggle to overthrow the regime with Ethiopian Peoples Democratic Front (EPRDF).

References

{{coord, 13, 00, 25, N, 39, 20, 45, E, display=title, region:ET_type:city Populated places in the Tigray Region by redae nigus published book in 2009