Ali Adde (, ) is a town in

Djibouti Djibouti, officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to the east. The country has an area ...

. It is located some 69 kilometers south of the capital,

Djibouti City Djibouti (also called Djibouti City and Jibuti in early Western texts) is the capital city of the Djibouti, Republic of Djibouti. It is located in the coastal Djibouti Region on the Gulf of Tadjoura. Djibouti has a population of around 780,000 ...

, with an elevation of 530 meters above sea level. It is the site of a

UNHCR The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and Humanitarian protection, protect refugees, Internally displaced person, forcibly displaced communities, and Statelessness, s ...

base hosting 12,363 refugees as of 2015. It sprawls on a wide basin surrounded by granitic mountains on some sides. The center is run by the UNHCR, and its operations are financed by foreign donors.

History

The Ali Adde settlement dates back several centuries, and is one of the oldest towns in Djibouti after

Tadjoura Tadjoura (; ; ) is one of the oldest towns in Djibouti and the capital of the Tadjourah Region. The town rose to prominence in the early 19th century as an alternative port to nearby Zeila. Lying on the Gulf of Tadjoura, it is home to a popula ...

and Obock. Its place-name literally means "the white or clear place" in the

Afro-Asiatic The Afroasiatic languages (also known as Afro-Asiatic, Afrasian, Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic) are a language family (or "phylum") of about 400 languages spoken predominantly in West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of th ...

Somali language Somali is an Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language belonging to the Cushitic languages, Cushitic branch, primarily spoken by the Somalis, Somali people, native to Greater Somalia. It is an official language in Somalia, Somaliland, and Ethio ...

. According to an old legend, the present-day territory of Ali Adde was covered by

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...

s, with a

wadi Wadi ( ; ) is a river valley or a wet (ephemerality, ephemeral) Stream bed, riverbed that contains water only when heavy rain occurs. Wadis are located on gently sloping, nearly flat parts of deserts; commonly they begin on the distal portion ...

crossing the area. Originally a small settlement, the town grew under the reign of the Ifat Sultanate and

Adal Sultanate The Adal Sultanate, also known as the Adal Empire or Barr Saʿad dīn (alt. spelling ''Adel Sultanate'', ''Adal Sultanate'') (), was a medieval Sunni Muslim empire which was located in the Horn of Africa. It was founded by Sabr ad-Din III on th ...

. It later formed a part of the

French Somaliland French Somaliland (; ; ) was a French colony in the Horn of Africa. It existed between 1884 and 1967, at which became the French Territory of the Afars and the Issas. The Republic of Djibouti is its legal successor state. History French Somalil ...

protectorate in the first half of the 20th century. In December 1942, about 1,000 British and French Free troops occupied the town. Ali Adde has an old fort near the Wadi Danan, which was built by the

French Army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (, , ), is the principal Army, land warfare force of France, and the largest component of the French Armed Forces; it is responsible to the Government of France, alongside the French Navy, Fren ...

in the 19th century.

Overview

The town lies on the National Highway 5. Ali Adde is 23 kilometres (14 mi) east of Ali Sabieh, 25 kilometres (15 mi) south of

Holhol Holhol (, ) is a town in the Ali Sabieh Region of Djibouti. It is located south-west of the capital Djibouti City, at an altitude of 450 metres (1,476 feet) above sea level. The surrounding area is rich in livestock and fledgling agriculture. I ...

, 21 kilometres (13 mi) north of Assamo, and 70 kilometres (43 mi) southwest of

Geography

Ali Adde is located in a

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over ...

in the southern section of the country. The city is situated in a mountainous area, in an enclosed valley of the highlands. It sits at an elevation of 530 meter (1,740 ft) above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

. One can also take in the local wildlife attracted by the relatively abundant rainfall. Among these are the

black-backed jackal The black-backed jackal (''Lupulella mesomelas'') is a medium-sized Caninae, canine native to East Africa, eastern and southern Africa. These regions are separated by roughly . One region includes the southernmost tip of the continent, includin ...

dorcas gazelle The dorcas gazelle (''Gazella dorcas''), also known as the ariel gazelle, is a small and common gazelle. The dorcas gazelle stands about at the shoulder, with a head and body length of and a weight of . The numerous subspecies survive on veget ...

, ''

Felis ''Felis'' is a genus of small and medium-sized cat species native to most of Africa and south of 60° latitude in Europe and Asia to Indochina. The genus includes the domestic cat. The smallest of the seven ''Felis'' species is the black-footed ...

'',

caracal The caracal (''Caracal caracal'') () is a medium-sized Felidae, wild cat native to Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and arid areas of Pakistan and northwestern India. It is characterised by a robust build, long legs, a short face, long ...

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

s and the

hamadryas baboon The hamadryas baboon (''Papio hamadryas'' ; gawina;Aerts 2019 , Ar Robbaḥ) is a species of baboon within the Old World monkey family. It is the northernmost of all the baboons, being native to the Horn of Africa and the southwestern region o ...

Climate

Ali Adde sits at an altitude of above sea level, in low-shrouded

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

s and hills. Its weather is characterized by sweltering and dry summers and pleasant to very warm winters, when most of the

precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls from clouds due to gravitational pull. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, rain and snow mixed ("sleet" in Commonwe ...

is concentrated ( spring and

autumn Autumn, also known as fall (especially in US & Canada), is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Southern Hemisphe ...

being hot transitional seasons). However, due to the town's altitude and inland location, its climatic features include the very low

humidity Humidity is the concentration of water vapor present in the air. Water vapor, the gaseous state of water, is generally invisible to the human eye. Humidity indicates the likelihood for precipitation (meteorology), precipitation, dew, or fog t ...

, and

temperature Temperature is a physical quantity that quantitatively expresses the attribute of hotness or coldness. Temperature is measurement, measured with a thermometer. It reflects the average kinetic energy of the vibrating and colliding atoms making ...

s usually falling below at night, which makes summer distinctly less unpleasant compared to coastal cities. Due to its altitude, temperatures are relatively normal for a town located not particularly far from the hottest deserts in the world. The town is known for its normal climate during the summer periods. Between May and early September, the annual high temperature is a high of and a low of . Ali Adde has a hot arid climate (''BWh'') by the Köppen-Geiger system.

Demographics

As of 2018, the population of Ali Adde has been estimated to be 3,400. The town inhabitants belong to various mainly Afro-Asiatic-speaking ethnic groups, with the Issa Somali predominant. Before the

camp was opened, the local town population traditionally consisted of

nomadic Nomads are communities without fixed habitation who regularly move to and from areas. Such groups include hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads (owning livestock), tinkers and trader nomads. In the twentieth century, the population of nomadic pa ...

pastoralists, who were mainly

camel A camel (from and () from Ancient Semitic: ''gāmāl'') is an even-toed ungulate in the genus ''Camelus'' that bears distinctive fatty deposits known as "humps" on its back. Camels have long been domesticated and, as livestock, they provid ...

and goat herders. However, since the 1990s, an influx of refugees has dramatically shifted the demographics of the area.

References

{{reflist
‘Ali‘adde, Djibouti

External links

‘Ali‘adde, Djibouti
Populated places in Djibouti