Gafat Armament Engineering Complex
Gafat Armament Engineering Complex is one of the military production facilities of the Metals and Engineering Corporation. With its headquarters in Bishoftu, it specializes in producing wide range of infantry equipment that meet the requirement of the Ethiopian National Defense Force. History It was established in January 1986 as the Gafat Engineering Factory to fulfill the need for local manufacture of basic infantry equipment. It initially produced AK-47 automatic rifles and light machine guns, as well as maintenance. It was later expanded to manufacture PK machine guns, and automatic weapons attached on armoured vehicles and helicopters. To fully utilize its manufacturing capacity, the complex has diversified by supplying various items for civilian use. It is often believed that North Korean advisors assisted with manufacturing of small arms. Products Military products include: various types of automatic rifles and machine guns; 40mm grenade launchers; various types of guns ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Metals And Engineering Corporation
METEC (acronym for Metals and Engineering Corporation) is an Ethiopian arms and machinery industry founded in 2010. Being the state largest military industrial complex, it is responsible for the production of military equipment and civilian products. METEC works with foreign companies such as Alstom from France, and Spire Corporation from America. Controversy Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam METEC was once responsible for constructing the $4 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam project on the River Nile, expected to be Africa’s biggest hydroelectric project, but was ousted from the contract in August 2018. Kinfe Dagnew, a Brigadier General in Ethiopia’s army and former chief executive of METEC plays a significant role in the organization. The company was assigned development of Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam and sugar factory, as well as the Jinka Sugar Bag factory. On 12 November 2018, all assigned project canceled due to fail to complete, and government arrested Kinfe Da ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bishoftu
Bishoftu (; ) is a town in central Ethiopia. Located in the East Shewa Zone of the Oromia Region, it sits at an elevation of 1,920 metres (6,300 ft). It was formerly known as Debre Zeyit () however since the late 1990s it has been officially known by the Oromo name, Bishoftu (which translates to "sweetness" or "baked"), which was its name until 1955."Local History in Ethiopia" (pdf) The Nordic Africa Institute website (accessed 7 December 2007) The town serves as the primary airbase of the Ethiopian Air Force. Bishoftu is located southeast of [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ethiopian National Defense Force
The Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF) ( am, የኢፌዲሪ መከላከያ ሠራዊት, Ye’īfēdērī mekelakeya šerawīt, lit=FDRE Defense Force) is the military force of Ethiopia. Civilian control of the military is carried out through the Ministry of Defense, which oversees the Ground Forces, Air Force, Naval Force as well as the Defense Industry Sector. History The Ethiopian army's origins and military traditions date back to the earliest history of Ethiopia. Due to Ethiopia's location between the Middle East and Africa, it has long been in the middle of Eastern and Western politics and has been subject to foreign invasion and aggression. In 1579, the Ottoman Empire's attempt to expand from a coastal base at Massawa during the Ottoman conquest of Habesh was defeated. The Army of the Ethiopian Empire was also able to defeat the Egyptians in 1876 at Gura, led by Ethiopian Emperor Yohannes IV. Clapham wrote in the 1980s that the "Abyssinians ad suffered ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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AK-47
The AK-47, officially known as the ''Avtomat Kalashnikova'' (; also known as the Kalashnikov or just AK), is a gas-operated assault rifle that is chambered for the 7.62×39mm cartridge. Developed in the Soviet Union by Russian small-arms designer Mikhail Kalashnikov, it is the originating firearm of the Kalashnikov (or "AK") family of rifles. After more than seven decades since its creation, the AK-47 model and its variants remain one of the most popular and widely used firearms in the world. The number "47" refers to the year the rifle was finished. Design work on the AK-47 began in 1945. It was presented for official military trials in 1947, and, in 1948, the fixed-stock version was introduced into active service for selected units of the Soviet Army. In early 1949, the AK was officially accepted by the Soviet Armed Forces and used by the majority of the member states of the Warsaw Pact. The model and its variants owe their global popularity to their reliability under har ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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PK Machine Gun
The PK (russian: Пулемёт Калашникова, transliterated as ''Pulemyot Kalashnikova'', or "Kalashnikov's machine gun"), is a belt-fed general-purpose machine gun, chambered for the 7.62×54mmR rimmed cartridge. Designed in the Soviet Union and currently in production in Russia, the original PK machine gun was introduced in 1961 and the improved PKM variant was introduced in 1969. The PKM was designed to replace the SGM and RP-46 machine guns that were previously in Soviet service. The weapon remains in use as a front-line infantry and vehicle-mounted weapon with Russia's armed forces and has also been exported extensively and produced in several other countries under license. History The Main Artillery Directorate of the Soviet Union (GRAU) adopted specification requirements for a new 7.62 mm general-purpose company and battalion-level machine gun that was to be chambered for a rifle cartridge in 1955. In 1958 a machine gun prototype, developed by G.I. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Gafat People
The Gafat ( Amharic: ጋፋት) are an extinct ethnic group that once inhabited present day western Ethiopia. They spoke the Gafat language, an extinct South Ethiopic grouping within the Semitic subfamily of the Afroasiatic languages and closely related to Harari and Eastern Gurage languages. According to Alleqa Taye, in the year 1922 Gafat was only spoken privately in Gojjam due to the Amhara designating them outcasts. Etymology A few linguists have postulated Gafat is an extract from the root Harari term ''Gáfá'' meaning slave. History Gafat was located just within the kingdom of Damot to the north upper Gibe River and bordered directly on southern bank of the Blue Nile. Like near by Damot, Gafat is reported in the Gedle Yared to have come under Zagwe rule in the 12th century and Tekle Haymanot accomplished his mission as well. Gafat on both side of the Nile appeared to have kept them in great numbers. The thirteenth century Amhara rebel leader Yekuno Amlak was sup ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Solomonic Dynasty
The Solomonic dynasty, also known as the House of Solomon, was the ruling dynasty of the Ethiopian Empire formed in the thirteenth century. Its members claim lineal descent from the biblical King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Tradition asserts that the queen gave birth to Menelik I after her Biblically described visit to Solomon in Jerusalem. In 1270, the Zagwe dynasty was overthrown by Yekuno Amlak, who claimed descent from Solomon and founded the Solomonic era of Ethiopia. The dynasty lasted until 1974, ended by a coup d'état and the deposition of Haile Selassie, who was a Solomonic prince through his grandmother. History The Solomonic dynasty, a bastion of Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity, came to rule Ethiopia on 10 Nehasé 1262 EC (10 August 1270 CE) when Yekuno Amlak overthrew the last ruler of the Zagwe dynasty at the Battle of Ansata. Yekuno Amlak claimed direct male line descent from the old Axumite royal house that the Zagwes had replaced on the throne. M ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sebastopol (Mortar)
Sebastopol was the name of a large artillery mortar commissioned by the Ethiopian emperor Tewodros II. The name was taken from the Crimean town Sevastopol, the site of a battle during the Crimean War. The mortar weighed approximately 6.7 tons, and was capable of firing off half-ton artillery rounds. Tewodros, in an attempt to speed up industrialization in Ethiopia, took some British officials and German missionaries hostage to coerce technological help out of the United Kingdom. Instead the British government mounted an expedition to free the captives, which resulted in the Battle of Magdala. Tewodros ordered the mortar to be hauled up to his fortress capital, but it was too heavy. Although there are no records of the mortar being used in the battle it remains half-buried in the ground, on the plateau at Meqedela, near Amba Mariam. A bronze replica has been cast and displayed in the centre of a roundabout at Tewodros Square, Churchill Avenue, Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Debre Tabor
Debre Tabor ( am, ደብረ ታቦር, lit. "Mount Tabor") is a town and woreda in north-central Ethiopia. Located in the Debub Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region, about 100 kilometers southeast of Gondar and 50 kilometers east of Lake Tana, this historic town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of above sea level. The presence of at least 48 springs in the area contributed to the development of Debre Tabor. Debre Tabor is served by an airport (ICAO code HADT, IATA DBT). History Origin Authorities differ over the facts of its founding. Mordechai Abir states that it was founded by Ras Ali I; however, Richard Pankhurst gives a detailed account of its foundation by Ras Gugsa, and includes the tradition that the location was selected with supernatural help. In either case, Debre Tabor was the seat of the Regents of the Emperor in the 18th and 19th centuries, from which periods several churches and the ruins of two palaces survive. Debre Tabor was the capi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Tewodros II
, spoken = ; ''djānhoi'', lit. ''"O steemedroyal"'' , alternative = ; ''getochu'', lit. ''"Our master"'' (pl.) Tewodros II ( gez, ዳግማዊ ቴዎድሮስ, baptized as Gebre Kidan; 1818 – 13 April 1868) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1855 until his death in 1868. His rule is often placed as the beginning of modern Ethiopia and brought an end to the decentralized Zemene Mesafint (Era of the Princes). Tewodros II's origins were in the Era of the Princes, but his ambitions were not those of the regional nobility. He sought to re-establish a cohesive Ethiopian state and to reform its administration and church. He sought to restore Solomonic hegemony, and he considered himself the Elect of God. Tewodros II's first task after having reunited the other provinces was to bring Shewa under his control. During the Era of the Princes, Shewa was, even more than most provinces, an independent entity, its ruler even styling himself Negus (Neguece), the title for King. In t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Military Industrial Facilities Of Ethiopia
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct military uniform. It may consist of one or more military branches such as an army, navy, air force, space force, marines, or coast guard. The main task of the military is usually defined as defence of the state and its interests against external armed threats. In broad usage, the terms ''armed forces'' and ''military'' are often treated as synonymous, although in technical usage a distinction is sometimes made in which a country's armed forces may include both its military and other paramilitary forces. There are various forms of irregular military forces, not belonging to a recognized state; though they share many attributes with regular military forces, they are less often referred to as simply ''military''. A nation's military may ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |