Metehara (, ) 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 East Shewa Zone of the

Oromia Region Oromia (, ) is a Regions of Ethiopia, regional state in Ethiopia and the homeland of the Oromo people. Under Article 49 of 1995 Constitution of Ethiopia, Ethiopian Constitution, the capital of Oromia is Addis Ababa, also called Finfinne. The ...

, it has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 947 meters above sea level. Access to Metehara includes a station on the Addis Ababa–Djibouti Railway. There is a Tuesday livestock market. Notable local landmarks include Metehara Mikael Bet church, Mount Fentale to the north, Awash National Park to the northeast, and Lake Basaka to the south of the town. The town is inhabited by the Karrayyu Oromo, Afar, Somali Dir clans ( Issa and

Gadabuursi The Gadabuursi (Somali language, Somali: ''Gadabuursi'', Arabic language, Arabic: جادابورسي), also known as ''Samaroon'' (Arabic language, Arabic: ''قبيلة سَمَرُون)'', is a northern Somali clan, a sub-division of the Dir ...

) and Amhara.

History

Visitors to the area in the first decades of the 20th century frequently described the area as land between the Karrayyu Oromo, Afar, Somali Dir clans ( Issa and

) and Amhara."Local History in Ethiopia"
(pdf) The Nordic Africa Institute website (accessed 3 January 2008) Somali settlers from the Issa and

migrated to this region towards the end of the era of

Emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

Menelik II Menelik II ( ; horse name Aba Dagnew (Amharic: አባ ዳኘው ''abba daññäw''); 17 August 1844 – 12 December 1913), baptised as Sahle Maryam (ሣህለ ማርያም ''sahlä maryam'') was king of Shewa from 1866 to 1889 and Emperor of Et ...

. Later their numbers increased as relatives and kinsmen took permanent settlement there. On the eve of the Italian invasion, a German named Neitzel had been granted a concession to cultivate cotton and

coffee Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...

. Despite that, few people lived in the area until the arrival of the Dutch corporation Handelsvereeningung Amsterdam (HVA), which established a factory to process

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose Glucose is a sugar with the Chemical formula#Molecular formula, molecul ...

at Metehara, after it had been expelled from

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

in 1954. In 1970, the Karrayyu Oromo staged an armed demonstration in Metehara which destroyed fences and buildings at the HVA plantation. The Derg announced 3 February 1975 that the sugar plantation, including the Dutch investments, would be fully nationalized. During the 2002 drought, a Karrayyu Oromo leader was killed in Metehara, which increased tensions between the Karrayyu Oromo and

Afar people The Afar (), also known as the Danakil, Adali and Odali, are a Cushitic peoples, Cushitic ethnic group inhabiting the Horn of Africa. They primarily live in the Afar Region of Ethiopia and in northern Djibouti, as well as the entire southern co ...

s. As a result the Afar, who traded at the Tuesday market, did not go to the market during that drought.

Demographics

Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency in 2005, Metehara has an estimated total population of 21,348 of whom 10,763 were men and 10,585 were women.CSA 2005 National Statistics
, Table B.4 The 1994 national census reported this town had a total population of 11,934 of whom 5,837 were males and 6,097 were females. It is the largest town in Fentale

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 ...

Notes

{{reflist Populated places in the Oromia Populated lakeshore places in Ethiopia