Jaldessa
Jaldessa (also transliterated Jeldessa, Gildessa) is a village in eastern Ethiopia. Located in the Shinile Zone of the Somali Region, this settlement has a latitude and longitude of 9°43′N 42°08′E / 9.717°N 42.133°E.
The Central Statistical Agency has not published an estimate for the population of this village. It is located in Shinile woreda.
History
![](../I/m/Reception_of_the_English_mission_at_Gildessa_in_1897.jpg)
During the 19th century, Jaldessa was an important station on the trade route between Harar and the Red Sea coast.[1] W.C. Barker, writing in 1842, mentions it as a stopping place in the territory of the Nole Oromo, on the caravan route between Zeila and Harar.[2] The party of Italian explorer Count Pietro Porro was ambushed and slaughtered at Jaldessa in April 1886, which provided Menelik II of Shewa with an excuse to attack Harar.[3] Between the Shewan victory at Chelenqo and the foundation of Dire Dawa, Jaldessa was the seat of the local Ethiopian governor, Ato Mersha Nahusenay. The opening of the Addis Ababa - Djibouti Railway and the birth of Dire Dawa diminished the strategic importance of Jaldessa.[4]
Early in the Ogaden War, Jaldessa was captured by Somali units as they closed in on Dire Dawa; it was recaptured 4 February 1978 by the Ethiopian Ninth Division with Cuban tank and artillery shock troops.[5]
In 2008, the United States of America selected Jaldessa as one of seven locations where servicemen of the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa worked with Ethiopian veterinarians to vaccinate more than 20,000 animals: cattle were inoculated against blackleg and anthrax, while sheep and goats were inoculated against contagious caprine pleuro-pneumonia and peste des petits ruminants.[6]
Notes
- ↑ Richard Pankhurst, Economic History of Ethiopia (Addis Ababa: Haile Selassie I University Press, 1968), p. 408
- ↑ Barker, "Extract Report on the Probable Geographical Position of Harrar; With Some Information Relative to the Various Tribes in the Vicinity", Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, 12 (1842), p. 244
- ↑ Bahru Zewde, A history of modern Ethiopia, second edition (Oxford: James Currey, 2001), p. 63
- ↑ "The municipality and Development of Urban Services", Dire Dawa Administration website (accessed 6 September 2009)
- ↑ Gebru Tareke, "The Ethiopia-Somalia War of 1977 Revisited," International Journal of African Historical Studies, 2000 (33), p. 657
- ↑ "Ambassador Joins CJTF-HOA Team to Promote Ethiopian Livestock Health", U.S. Embassy in Ethiopia website (accessed 6 September 2009)