Dire dawa

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Dire Dawa (which in Somali, Dirirdhaba, means “Place of Remedy”)

History

Dire Dawa was founded in 1902 after the Addis Ababa-Djibouti Railway reached the area. The railroad could not reach the city of Harar at its higher elevation, so Dire Dawa was built nearby.

Soon afterwards, Ras Makonnen, the governor of Harar, ordered the construction of a road from Dire Dawa to Harar, one of the first in this part of the country. This road was substantially improved in 1928 with the aid of foreign engineers and equipment, improving travel times between the two cities from two days to only a few hours.

The city was flooded in August 2006 when the Dechatu River overflowed its banks. About 200 people were reported dead, thousands were displaced and there was extensive damage to homes and markets. Floods are fairly common during the June-September rainy season; over 200 people in the region had been killed by flooding in 2005 that also did millions of dollars in damage

Population:

Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA) published in 2005, Dire Dawa has an estimated total population of 398,000, consisting of 199,000 men and 199,000 women. 102,000 or 25.6% of the population are estimated to be rural inhabitants, while 296,000 or 74.4% are urban. With an estimated area of 1,213.20 square kilometers, this chartered city has an estimated density of 328.06 people per square kilometer

View of Dire Dawa

Ethio-Djibouti Railway Station Dire Dawa

Language and Religion:

A number of Ethiopian Languages including Oromiffa, Amharic, Somali, Guragigna, Tigrigna, Harari, etc. are widely spoken in Dire Dawa by the people from the various nations and nationalities living in Dire Dawa. Amharic is used as a working language in the city. Arabic also serves as a medium of communication in some sectors of the city.

The presence of conducive environments like similarity in lifestyles, closeness and friendship among the people of the city have contributed to the creation of a unique blending of custom thattranscends any cultural and language barriers. As a result of this, nearly all the people living especially in the central and eastern sections of the city are able to speak two or more languages. The predominant religions practiced in the region are Islam and Christianity. However, we can find people from other religious groups like Hindu and the like in the city

Tourism:

Dire Dawa has a rich wealth of pre-historic cave paintings some of which have achieved international recognition through the efforts of the French and American Geologists that have studied them several times in the last 75 years, while there are still other caves that have never been studied so far.

The remains of the British airmen and African soldiers who, during the second World War, fought besides the Ethiopian forces to liberate Ethiopia from Italian occupation.