Metemma

Coordinates: 12°58′N 36°12′E / 12.967°N 36.200°E / 12.967; 36.200
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Metemma
መተማ
Town
UTC+3 (EAT
)

Metemma (

Muslim provinces", although at the time the settlement was better known as Suk ul-Gallabat ("The market of Gallabat").[1]

Metemma hosts an

IATA
ETE).

History

The town traces its origins to the 18th century, when a colony of

Kurdufan and Darfur. These foreign conscripts eventually revolted and killed the "so-called Arab chief", making one of their own number ruler.[1]

Lying on the main trade route from

Yohannes IV had ordered the slave market closed.[4]

An Italian column from Gadabi occupied Metemma on 12 April 1936, which consisted of one Eritrean battalion, one squadron mounted on camels, and 1 platoon of light tanks. During the occupation, the Italians built a mosque in the town.[2] After war was declared between the British and Italian Empires, the Italians crossed the border and occupied Gallabat. But the British recaptured the town 6 November 1940 with the intent of then capturing Metemma; however, the attack on Metemma failed miserably and the British were forced to evacuate Gallabat again. They occupied Metemma for good 19 January 1941.[5]

The trade route through Metemma remained important up to the beginning of the 20th century, but the introduction of rail transport to Sudan, as well as improvements to the roads inside Ethiopia robbed the town of its importance, until by E.C. 1944 (AD 1952) an official survey found only 129 thatched and corrugated-roof houses in Metemma, of which "fourteen were government properties, three were owned by nagades and twelve were empty -- probably reserved for renting."[6]

During the Ethiopian Civil War, Metemma was captured by the Ethiopian Democratic Union (EDU) on 13 January 1977, who attacked from positions inside Sudan.[7] The town was taken from the EDU by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front 7 October 1990, claiming to have killed 28 of its enemy forces, wounded 21, and captured 16.[2]

A road to

Al Qadarif of good standard was completed mid-March 2002, allowing import and export goods to be sent through Port Sudan, where an area had been reserved for Ethiopian goods and containers.[2]

During the

2023 Sudanese refugee crisis, thousands of Sudanese refugees were reported arriving in Metemma.[8]

Demographics

Based on figures from the

woreda
.

Notes

  1. ^ a b Hormuzd Rassam, Narrative of the British Mission to Theodore of Abyssinia (London, 1869), vol. 1, p. 158
  2. ^ a b c d "Local History in Ethiopia" Archived 2008-10-02 at the Wayback Machine The Nordic Africa Institute website (accessed 27 December 2007)
  3. ^ Pankhurst, Richard K. P. (1968). Economic History of Ethiopia. Addis Ababa: Haile Selassie I University. p. 84.
  4. ^ Pankhurst, p. 98
  5. ^ Anthony Mockler, Haile Selassie's War (New York: Olive Branch Press, 2003), pp. 272-279
  6. ^ The survey of the housing in Metemma was dated Ginbot 19, which falls in late May. Solomon Getamun, History of the City of Gondar (Africa World Press, 2005), pp. 100f.
  7. ^ Andargachew Tiruneh, The Ethiopian revolution, 1974-1987 (Cambridge: University Press, 1993), p. 207
  8. ^ Standard, Addis (2023-05-11). "News: More than 18, 000 displaced people arrive in Metema feeling violence in Sudan; first arrivals cross into Gambella". Addis Standard. Retrieved 2023-05-13.
  9. ^ CSA 2005 National Statistics Archived 2009-11-13 at the Wayback Machine, Table B.3
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