Mekane Selam (

Amharic Amharic is an Ethio-Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amhara people, and also serves as a lingua franca for all other metropolitan populati ...

: መካነ ሰላም) is a town in central

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 ...

. Located in the South Wollo Zone of the

Amhara Region The Amhara Region (), officially the Amhara National Regional State (), is a Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in northern Ethiopia and the homeland of the Amhara people, Amhara, Awi people, Awi, Xamir people, Xamir, Argobba people, Argobba, a ...

, this town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 1827 meters above sea level. It is the administrative center of Borena

woreda Districts of Ethiopia, also called woredas (; ''woreda''), are the third level of the administrative divisions of Ethiopia – after ''List of zones of Ethiopia, zones'' and the ''Regions of Ethiopia, regional states''. These districts are f ...

. The city is bordered by Eastern Gojjam in the west, Kelala and Wogide in the south, Leganbo (Akesta) in the east and Sayint (Agibar) in the north. Mekane Selam hosts an

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial Aviation, air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surf ...

(

IATA The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is an airline trade association founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tariff conferences tha ...

code MKS) with an unpaved runway, the former destination of scheduled flights by Ethiopian Airlines. The airport has not been operational for the last 20 and above years. It is also reportedly the western most community accessible by car in Wollo. The nearby geology is characterized by an outcropping of

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

ic rocks that have been reused in local buildings.

History

The Swedish geologist Erik Nilsson visited Mekane Selam (which he called Agibar) during the first half of 1933, where he spent some time with the province's governor, Dejazmach Workneh. Mekane Selam was the site where 8,000 Italian soldiers surrendered in May 1941. These were the remnants of 51 battalions which had managed to escape from Gojjam ahead of Gideon Force and were trapped in the town when Wilfred Thesiger completed a 50-mile march in 24 hours with his men and seized the ridge connecting two hills the Italians had intended to use for their retreat.

Demographics

Based on 2005 figures from the Central Statistical Agency, Mekane Selam has an estimated total population of 8,481 of whom 4,119 were males and 4,362 were females.CSA 2005 National Statistics
, Table B.4 The 1994 census reported this town had a total population of 4,901 of whom 2,167 were males and 2,734 were females.

Notes

{{reflist Populated places in the Amhara Region