Samre is a town in northern Ethiopia. Located in the
Debub Misraqawi (south-eastern) Zone of the
Tigray Region
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 ...
, this town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 1855 meters above sea level. It is one of two towns in
Saharti Samre 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 ...
.
History
The ''Royal Chronicle'' of Emperor
Yohannes I
Yohannes I (), also known as Yohannes the Righteous (Ge'ez: ጻድቁ ዮሐንስ), throne name A'ilaf Sagad (Ge'ez: አእላፍ ሰገድ; 1640 – 19 July 1682) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1667 to 1682, and a member of the Solomonic dynas ...
mentions Samre as one of the settlements involved in the 1677 revolt of Fares and Zamaryam. The town is mentioned again in an inquiry conducted by Emperor
Iyasu I
Iyasu I ( Ge'ez: ኢያሱ ፩; 1654 – 13 October 1706), throne name Adyam Sagad (Ge'ez: አድያም ሰገድ), also known as Iyasu the Great, was Emperor of Ethiopia from 19 July 1682 until his death in 1706, and a member of the Solomonic dy ...
in 1698, in which he proclaimed that tolls should no longer be collected there.
When
Charles Beke
Charles Tilstone Beke (10 October 1800 – 31 July 1874) was an English traveller, geographer and Biblical critic.
Biography
Born in Stepney, London, the son of a merchant in the City of London, for a few years Beke engaged in mercantile pursuit ...
left Ethiopia, his path took him through Samre (April 1843). He wrote that it was the residence of the governor of "Salowa", and the location of "the salt-market of Tigre, in direct correspondence with
Sókota in
Lasta
Lasta (Amharic: ላስታ ''lāstā'') is a historic province in northern Ethiopia located in the Amhara Region. It is the province in which Lalibela is situated, the former capital of Ethiopia during the Zagwe dynasty and home to 11 medieval roc ...
". When
Augustus B. Wylde passed through Samre in the late 1890s, the town had declined since the death of its resident lord, one
Ras Hailu. The late Ras's palace, one of the largest structures Wylde had seen in Ethiopia, was reduced to ruins, and its market, which had been so busy to require daily sessions, now met once a week on Saturdays.
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 ...
, units of the
Tigray People's Liberation Front
The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF; ), also known as the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front, is a left-wing Ethnic nationalism, ethnic nationalist, paramilitary group, and the former ruling party of Ethiopia. It was classified as a ter ...
held Samre from 20 June through 22 1988 against the
Ethiopian 16th Division in a delaying action against the government's
Operation Adwa.
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 2005, Samre has an estimated total population of 3,712 of whom 1,748 are men and 1,964 are women.
CSA 2005 National Statistics
Table B.4 The 1994 census reported it had a total population of 2,138 of whom 931 were men and 1,207 were women.
Notes
Populated places in the Tigray Region
{{Tigray-geo-stub