Sheraro () is a town and separate

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 ...

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 located in the North Western Zone of the Tigray Region, at an elevation of 1246 meters above sea level. It is the administrative center of

Tahtay Adiyabo Tahtay Adiyabo () is a woreda in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Part of the North Western Zone, Tahtay Adiyabo is bordered on the south by Asigede Tsimbela, on the southwest by the Tekezé River on the north by Eritrea, and on the east by La'ila ...

. It is near the border with

Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...

. Between January 1995 and June 1998,

SUR Construction Sur, SUR or El Sur may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Films * ''Sur'' (film), a 1988 Argentine film directed by Fernando Solanas * ''Sur'', a 1970 Mexican film directed by Gabriel Retes * ''El Sur'' (film), a 1983 film by Víctor Erice, ...

built two road segments connecting Sheraro with

Shire Shire () is a traditional term for an administrative division of land in Great Britain and some other English-speaking countries. It is generally synonymous with county (such as Cheshire and Worcestershire). British counties are among the oldes ...

to the east and

Humera Humera (; ) is a town in the Kafta Humera woreda in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Located in the Western Zone the town has an elevation of above sea level. The Tekezé river borders the town to the north. Humera is a very important regional ...

to the west, totalling in length 139.5 kilometers.

History

Along with

Zana Zana may refer to: Mythological figures * Zână, Zână (Romanian mythology), a female figure in Romanian mythology * Zana (mythology), Zana (Albanian mythology), an Albanian mythological figure Places * Diana Veteranorum or Zana, an ancient ...

, Sheraro was an early hotbed of

Tigrayan 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 nationalist, paramilitary group, and the former ruling party of Ethiopia. It was classified as a terrorist organization ...

(TPLF) support. According to Gebru Tareke, the TPLF made Sheraro its base between 1979 and 1980, not only creating a support infrastructure there but also cultivating the land to grow cereals such as corn and sorghum, and cash crops like sesame. Eventually, the

Derg The Derg or Dergue (, ), officially the Provisional Military Administrative Council (PMAC), was the military junta that ruled Ethiopia, including present-day Eritrea, from 1974 to 1987, when they formally "Civil government, civilianized" the ...

, the ruling military junta of Ethiopia, directed a military campaign to crush the TPLF at its base. On 12 February 1980, they launched Operation Sheraro, in which four brigades of 4,000 men under the command of Colonel Tariku Ayne advanced first to the TPLF base on the

Sur River The Sur is a river in India. It is a key tributary of the Wainganga. The river flows south in a winding course through the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra. Course The start stream of Sur originate at forest Hills near Maharapeth (R) in Ramtek T ...

, which they destroyed then on 25 February departed for Shiraro, which they found deserted and the TPLF positioned on the heights. On the next day, although without intelligence about their opponents, the Derg soldiers advanced into an open field—where the TPLF ambushed them. After four hours of fierce fighting, the four brigades of the defenders dissolved and the men retreated in disarray. Their casualties were 117 dead (including three battalion and three company commanders) and 292 wounded (including 11 officers). When the Derg evacuated the town for the last time in 1985, allegedly the soldiers left land mines and hidden bombs which injured some people who had returned from hiding in the countryside. Shiraro was subjected to an aerial attack by Derg aircraft on 12 December 1988, which killed 8 people. Sheraro experienced shelling on 21 October 1998, during the Eritrean-Ethiopian War. Its inhabitants and refugees from the surrounding area who had sought safety in the town fled to a camp near Zeban Gedena, about 15 kilometers to the southeast.

Demographics

Based on the 2007 national census conducted by 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 ...

of Ethiopia (CSA), this town has a total population of 17,045, of whom 8,163 are men and 8,882 women. The majority of the inhabitants said they practiced

Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church () is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. One of the few Christian churches in Africa originating before European colonization of the continent, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church dates bac ...

, with 93.2% reporting that as their religion, while 6.54% of the population were

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

. According to the 1994 national census, its total population was 8,415 of whom 3,881 were men and 4,534 were women. ""Local History in Ethiopia"
The Nordic Africa Institute website (accessed 12 December 2007)

Ethiopian Civil War

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 12 December 1988, Sheraro was bombed from the air by the Ethiopian National Defence Forces, and eight people were killed.

Tigray War

During the Tigray War, the town was the site of clashes between the TDF and the

EDF EDF may refer to: Organisations * Eclaireurs de France, a French Scouting association * Électricité de France, a French energy company ** EDF Energy, their British subsidiary ** EDF Luminus, their Belgian subsidiary * Environmental Defense Fund, ...

. Amid renewed fighting in the region the town was taken by Eritrean and Ethiopian forces on 13 September 2022.

References

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