Loyada (, ) is a small 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 ...

. Located in the Arta Region, it is the only official border crossing from Djibouti into

Somaliland Somaliland, officially the Republic of Somaliland, is an List of states with limited recognition, unrecognised country in the Horn of Africa. It is located in the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden and bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, E ...

. It is situated on the west coast of

Gulf of Aden The Gulf of Aden (; ) is a deepwater gulf of the Indian Ocean between Yemen to the north, the Arabian Sea to the east, Djibouti to the west, and the Guardafui Channel, the Socotra Archipelago, Puntland in Somalia and Somaliland to the south. ...

, from the capital,

Etymology

The name of the town derives from Afar ''Lē-ʿádu'' or ''Lē-ʿadó'', which means "white watering-place" and in Somali became ''Loowyaʿádde'', "with white calves", by

cacography Cacography is bad spelling or bad handwriting. The term in the sense of "poor spelling, accentuation, and punctuation" is a semantic antonym to orthography, and in the sense of "poor handwriting" it is an etymological antonym to the word calligra ...

. The French colonial authorities wrote it "Loyada"; the standard Somali spelling is "Lawya caddo".

History and politics

The village stood on a low hill overlooking the

shoreline A coast (coastline, shoreline, seashore) is the land next to the sea or the line that forms the boundary between the land and the ocean or a lake. Coasts are influenced by the topography of the surrounding landscape and by aquatic erosion, su ...

. The water was supplied from a

well A well is an excavation or structure created on the earth by digging, driving, or drilling to access liquid resources, usually water. The oldest and most common kind of well is a water well, to access groundwater in underground aquifers. The ...

in the western part of the village. During antiquity Loyada was part of the city-states that in engaged in a lucrative trade network connecting the merchants with

Phoenicia Phoenicians were an Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syria, Syrian ...

Ptolemaic Egypt Ptolemaic is the adjective formed from the name Ptolemy, and may refer to: Pertaining to the Ptolemaic dynasty * Ptolemaic dynasty, the Macedonian Greek dynasty that ruled Egypt founded in 305 BC by Ptolemy I Soter *Ptolemaic Kingdom Pertaining ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

, Parthian Persia,

Saba Saba may refer to: Places * Saba (island), an island of the Netherlands located in the Caribbean Sea * Sabá, a municipality in the department of Colón, Honduras * Șaba or Șaba-Târg, the Romanian name for Shabo, a village in Ukraine * Saba, ...

, Nabataea, and the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Roman people, Romans conquered most of this during the Roman Republic, Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of ...

. Between

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 ...

and Loyada are a number of anthropomorphic and phallic stelae. The structures are associated with graves of rectangular shape flanked by vertical slabs. The Djibouti-Loyada stelae are of uncertain age, and some of them are adorned with a T-shaped symbol. During the Middle Ages, the Djibouti area including Loyada was part of the Adal and Ifat Sultanates. In 1888, the colonial powers drew the border between

British Somaliland British Somaliland, officially the Somaliland Protectorate (), was a protectorate of the United Kingdom in modern Somaliland. It was bordered by Italian Somalia, French Somali Coast and Ethiopian Empire, Abyssinia (Italian Ethiopia from 1936 ...

and French Djibouti from Loyada south to Jaldessa. Loyada border post

In August 1940 Loyada was occupied by the

Italians Italians (, ) are a European peoples, European ethnic group native to the Italian geographical region. Italians share a common Italian culture, culture, History of Italy, history, Cultural heritage, ancestry and Italian language, language. ...

, who remained in its fort for some months. On 3 February 1976, insurgents of the Somali-backed FLCS armed with StG-44s and a MG42 hijacked a bus carrying 31 French children in Djibouti City and drove it to Loyada. France sent legionnaires and

gendarme A gendarmerie () is a paramilitary or military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term ''gendarme'' () is derived from the medieval French expression ', which translates to "men-at-arms" (). In France and som ...

s from the

GIGN The GIGN ( ; ) is the elite police tactical unit of the French National Gendarmerie. Among its missions are counterterrorism, hostage rescue, surveillance of national threats, protection of government officials, critical site protection (such ...

and the hostages were rescued the following day under covering fire from Somali border troops, but two children were killed and five wounded. In the early 1990s, like much of Djibouti, the area was subject to conflict. Rebels took the town and were driven out by government forces, but on 5 May 1990 the

Somali National Movement The Somali National Movement (, ) was one of the first and most important Guerrilla warfare, organized guerilla groups and Mujahideen groups that opposed the Siad Barre regime in the 1980s to the 1990s, as well as being the main anti-government f ...

(SNM) attacked Loyada and killed a number of Somali National Army (SNA) people. The event, took place while negotiations between the Djibouti and Somali governments was taking place, and the Somali government protested to the Djibouti Ministry of Foreign Affairs, blaming the Djibouti government for the incident. The town is currently the only official border crossing between Djibouti and

. Beginning late in 1999, Djibouti and Somaliland closed the border crossing several times for political reasons. In 2002, after Dahir Riyale Kahin became president of Somaliland, they agreed to reopen it. The

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 ...

has established a centre for the assistance of Somali refugees at Loyada.

Climate

The average annual temperature in Loyada is 30 °C. About 163 mm of precipitation falls annually. The warmest month of the year is July with an average temperature of 36 °C. In January, the average temperature is 25.5 °C. It is the lowest average temperature of the whole year. The largest cities most proximate to Loyada are

(25 km),

Zeila Zeila (, ), also known as Zaila or Zayla, is a historical port town in the western Awdal region of Somaliland. In the Middle Ages, the Jewish traveller Benjamin of Tudela identified Zeila with the Biblical location of Havilah. Most modern schola ...

(36 km) and

Berbera Berbera (; , ) is the capital of the Sahil, Somaliland, Sahil region of Somaliland and is the main sea port of the country, located approximately 160 km from the national capital, Hargeisa. Berbera is a coastal city and was the former capital of t ...

(289 km).

Demographics

, the population of Loyada has been estimated to be 1,367. The town's inhabitants belong to various mainly

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 ...

-speaking ethnic groups, with the Issa Somali predominant.

References

External links

Maplandia.com: Satellite map of Loyada
{{coord, 11, 28, N, 43, 15, E, display=title, region:DJ_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki Arta Region Populated places in Djibouti Djibouti–Somaliland border crossings