Ali Ghider () is located nine kilometers to the west of

Teseney Teseney (, ), also spelled Tessenei or Tesseney, is a market town in western Eritrea. It lies south-east of Kassala in Sudan, on the Gash River. The city was much fought over in the Eritrean War of Independence during which much of it was destroy ...

in the country of

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 ...

. It is part of the Teseney sub-zone and has a diverse population. It is considered the last settlement in Eritrea before reaching the

Sudan Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

ese Border and is located in the lowlands. Agriculture, livestock raising, and trade are vital to the area's economy. Ali Ghider has access to

potable water Drinking water or potable water is water that is safe for ingestion, either when drunk directly in liquid form or consumed indirectly through food preparation. It is often (but not always) supplied through taps, in which case it is also calle ...

from both the Gash River and underground water resources. The irrigation process has created an artificial

marsh In ecology, a marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous plants rather than by woody plants.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p More in genera ...

near the Gash River, which provides a large habitat for many bird species. Ali Ghider was once an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

frontier village. Ali Ghider was an agricultural area that grew cotton and other crops, including sorghum, millet, and taff, and was managed by the Societa Impresse Africana (SIA). SIA helped develop Ali Ghider into a company town, housing tenant farmers and other workers on the plantation. A school and clinic were set up, and by the 1950s, the

plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tob ...

employed 2,000 Eritreans and 15 Italians and "provided a residence for another 12,000 part-time workers and family members." A well-known Italian business that was established for many years in Ali Ghider was the Barattolo

cotton plantation Plantations are farms specializing in cash crops, usually mainly planting a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. Plantations, centered on a plantation house, grow crops including cotton, cannabis, tobacco ...

, which was established in 1965 by Roberto Barattolo in a purchase from SIA. This acquisition from the SIA allowed Barattolo to export

knitwear Knitted fabric is a textile that results from knitting, the process of inter-looping of yarns or inter-meshing of loops. Its properties are distinct from woven fabric in that it is more flexible and can be more readily constructed into smaller ...

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

. Ali Ghider received significant damage from the sacking by Ethiopian forces. Many of the Italian artifacts left from its time as a frontier village were destroyed in 2001 through

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 ...

n military actions.

References

Populated places in Eritrea {{Eritrea-geo-stub