Abiy Addi is a town in north central Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

, and was capital of the former province of Tembien

Tembien

Tembien is one of the former provinces of Ethiopia. It is a mountainous area of that country.The name Tembien has also been used for:*Tembien, an Italian 600-Serie Adua class submarine sunk in World War II...

 before that province was incorporated into Tigray

Tigray Province

Tigray was a province of Ethiopia. The Tigray Region superseded the province with the adoption of the new constitution in 1995. The province of Tigre merged with its neighboring provinces, including Semien, Tembien, Agame and the prominent Enderta province and towards the end of 19th century it...

. Located about 470 kilometres north of Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa

Addis Ababa is the capital city of Ethiopia...

 in the Mehakelegnaw Zone

Mehakelegnaw Zone

Mehakelegnaw is a Zone in the Ethiopian Region of Tigray. Mehakelegnaw is bordered on the east by Misraqawi , on the south by Debubawi , on the west by Mirabawi and on the north by Eritrea...

 of the Tigray Region

Tigray Region

Tigray Region is the northernmost of the nine ethnic regions of Ethiopia containing the homeland of the Tigray people. It was formerly known as Region 1...

, this town has a latitude and longitude of 13°37′N 39°00′E with an elevation ranging from 1917 to 2275 meters above sea level. Abiy Addi is the administrative center of Kola Tembien

Kola Tembien

Kola Tembien is one of the 36 woredas in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. It is named in part after the former province of Tembien...

 woreda.

Overview

The town is divided into two parts by the Tsechi River, the lower part being the more respectable part while the upper part "is where you'll find the marketplace ... and the seedier bars in which you're most likely to see Awri dancing as the tej

Tej

Tej is a mead or honey wine that is brewed and consumed in Ethiopia. It is flavored with the powdered leaves and twigs of gesho , a hops-like bittering agent that is a species of buckthorn...

hits the mark." Briggs notes that Abiy Addi is known in Tigray for the frenetic style of dancing called "Awri", as well as the quality of its honey.

Having visited Abiy Abbi in the mid-1940s, David Buxton thought that "perhaps the best thing about Abbi Addi was the panorama of the Simien mountains

Semien Mountains

The Semien Mountains lie in northern Ethiopia, north east of Gondar. They are a World Heritage Site and include the Semien Mountains National Park. The mountains consist of plateaux separated by valleys and rising to pinnacles...

 standing to the west beyond the deep valley of the Takazzé." Buxton notes that the entire height of that mountain range was visible, from the southern foothills to the summit. "And round about the lower slopes, dimly seen through the haze, were many fantastic outlying peaks, square or spiky, like the mountains of a child's imagination." As for the town itself, Philip Briggs describes it as "a reasonably substantial settlement, set in a dusty valley below an impressive cliff."

Abiy Addi is connected to Adwa

Adwa

Adwa is a market town in northern Ethiopia, and best known as the community closest to the decisive Battle of Adowa fought in 1896 with Italian troops. Notably, Ethiopian soldiers won the battle, thus being the only African nation to thwart European colonialism...

 by an all-weather gravel road which runs through Maykinetal, which has a total length of 100 kilometers; it was rehabilitated between May 2003 and April 2005 at a cost of 54.6 million Birr

Ethiopian birr

The birr is the unit of currency in Ethiopia. Before 1976, dollar was the official English translation of birr. Today, it is officially birr in English as well....

.

History

Abiy Addi owed its importance in the 19th century due to its location on the "King's Road", at the point where the road south from Adwa

Adwa

Adwa is a market town in northern Ethiopia, and best known as the community closest to the decisive Battle of Adowa fought in 1896 with Italian troops. Notably, Ethiopian soldiers won the battle, thus being the only African nation to thwart European colonialism...

 split, one branch taking travellers to Debre Tabor

Debre Tabor

Debre Tabor is a town and a woreda in north-central Ethiopia. Located in the Debub Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region of Ethiopia, about 100 kilometers southeast of Gondar and 50 kilometers east of Lake Tana, this historic town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 2706 meters above...

 and the other to the Lake Ashenge

Lake Ashenge

Lake Ashenge is a lake in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Located in the Ethiopian highlands at an elevation of 2409 meters, it has no outlet...

 region. The British explorer Charles Beke

Charles Tilstone Beke

Charles Tilstone Beke was an English traveller, geographer and Biblical critic. Born in Stepney, London, the son of a merchant in the City of London, for a few years Beke engaged in mercantile pursuits...

 passed through this town (which he called "A'biyad") 15 April 1843, and described it later as "the principal place of Tembien, and a large market-town." However, in later years the fortunes of the town varied. By 1890, visitors described Abiy Addi as a small market town which handled various imported goods, such as mirrors made in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, cotton

Cotton

Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective capsule, around the seeds of cotton plants of the genus Gossypium. The fiber is almost pure cellulose. The botanical purpose of cotton fiber is to aid in seed dispersal....

 cloth from Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

 and Mumbai

Mumbai

Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...

, as well as the usual local produce. Writing a few years later, Augustus B. Wylde described the Abiy Addi market, held on Saturdays, as of medium size.

On 5 December 1935, during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, Abiy Addi was occupied by the Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 Eritrean Corps. the town was evacuated later that month. Then, after having been headquarters of Ras Kassa Haile Darge

Kassa Haile Darge

Ras Kassa Haile Darge GCVO, GBE , was a Shewan nobleman, the son of Haile Wolde Kiros of Lasta and Tisseme Darge, and grandson of Ras Darge Sahle Selassie the brother of Menelik II's father....

 and Ras Seyoum Mengesha

Seyum Mangasha

Seyum Mangasha KBE was an army commander and a member of the Royal family of the Ethiopian Empire.-Biography:...

, it was definitely reoccupied by the Italians on 28 February 1936. A rock-hewn church served as the shelter of Ras Kassa.

With only minimal forces the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front

Tigrayan People's Liberation Front

The Tigrayan People's Liberation Front , known more commonly and sometimes pejoratively in Ethiopia as Woyane or Weyane is a political party in Ethiopia...

 (TPLF) had captured the lightly defended Abiy Addi in 1976 and controlled it for almost a year before being forced out of the town by superior Derg

Derg

The Derg or Dergue was a Communist military junta that came to power in Ethiopia following the ousting of Haile Selassie I. Derg, which means "committee" or "council" in Ge'ez, is the short name of the Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army, a committee of...

 Forces. The Red Terror

Red Terror (Ethiopia)

The Ethiopian Red Terror, or Qey Shibir , was a violent political campaign in Ethiopia that most visibly took place once Communist Mengistu Haile Mariam achieved control of the Derg, the military junta, 3 February 1977...

 was particularly brutal in this town, undoubtedly because of the TPLF's support in this area. During a market day in July 1977, the Derg executed 178 people in the town square, claiming that they were thieves. Eyewitnesses report that most of the victims were peasants, many of whom had travelled from the neighboring woreda of Adet

Naeder Adet

Naeder Adet is one of the 36 woredas in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Mehakelegnaw Zone, Naeder Adet is bordered on the south by the Wari River which separates it from Kola Tembien, on the west by Mi'irabawi Zone, on the northwest by Tahtay Maychew, on the northeast by La'ilay...

 to buy salt

Salt

In chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...

 because of shortages at home.

In the following years, Abiy Addi exchanged hands between the TPLF and the Derg was bombed by the Derg thirteen times, 340 houses were burnt or destroyed, and over 400 of the town's inhabitants were killed or wounded. This violence caused many people to leave the area, some for Mekele, and others as far as the liberated territories around Shiraro

Shiraro, Ethiopia

Shiraro is a town in northern Ethiopia. Located in the Mi'irabawi Zone of the Tigray Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 1246 meters above sea level...

 where even merchants took up farming. On 1 March 1985 Abiy Addi was bombed on a market day. In 1988, the TPLF took definite control of Abiy Addi, and held it to the conclusion of the Ethiopian Civil War

Ethiopian Civil War

The Ethiopian Civil War began on September 12, 1974 when the Marxist Derg staged a coup d'état against Emperor Haile Selassie, and lasted until the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front , a coalition of rebel groups, overthrew the government in 1991. The war overlapped other Cold War...

. However, the Derg attacked the town twice that year, once with helicopters, killing almost 50 people.

Demographics

Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency

Central Statistical Agency (Ethiopia)

The Central Statistical Agency is an agency of the government of Ethiopia designated to provide all surveys and censuses for that country used to monitor economic and social growth, as well as to act as an official training center in that field. It is part of the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance and...

in 2005, Abiy Addi has an estimated total population of 13,718, of whom 6,657 are men and 7,061 are women. The 1994 census reported it had a total population of 7,884 of whom 3,545 were men and 4,339 were women.