Imi is a village in the Somali Region

Somali Region

Somali Region ; is the eastern-most of the nine ethnic divisions of Ethiopia. It is often called Somalia, though it is not to be confused with the independent country of the same name. The capital of Somali State is Jijiga...

 of 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...

. It is located in the Mirab Imi

Mirab Imi

Mirab Imi is one of the 47 woredas in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. It is named for the historically significant village, Imi. Part of the Afder Zone, Mirab Imi is bordered on the south by Bare, on the southwest by Afder, on west by Elekere, and on the north by the Shebelle River which separates...

 woreda of the Afder Zone

Afder Zone

Afder is one of the nine Zones of the Somali Region of Ethiopia. Afder is bordered on the southwest by the Ganale Dorya River which separates it from Liben, on the west by the Oromia Region, on the north and northeast by the Shebelle River which separates it from Gode, and on the east and...

 on the north bank of the Shebelle River

Shebelle River

The Shebelle River begins in the highlands of Ethiopia, and then flows southeast into Somalia towards Mogadishu. Near Mogadishu, it turns sharply southwest, where it follows the coast. Below Mogadishu, the river becomes seasonal...

, at latitude and longitude 6°28′N 42°10′E with an elevation of 442 meters above sea level.

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...

 has not published an estimate for this village's 2005 population. Imi hosts an airport (ICAO code HAIM) which consists of an unpaved airstrip about 1050 meters in length, possibly the shortest in an Ethiopian civil airport.

History

Probably the earliest European explorer to visit Imi was Arthur Rimbaud

Arthur Rimbaud

Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet. Born in Charleville, Ardennes, he produced his best known works while still in his late teens—Victor Hugo described him at the time as "an infant Shakespeare"—and he gave up creative writing altogether before the age of 21. As part of the decadent...

, who was working at the time as a commercial agent in Harar

Harar

Harar is an eastern city in Ethiopia, and the capital of the modern Harari ethno-political division of Ethiopia...

 for the firm of Mazeran, Vinnay and Barday. In a report of his expeditions into the "Ogadine" (or Ogaden

Ogaden

Ogaden is the name of a territory comprising the southeastern portion of the Somali Regional State in Ethiopia. The inhabitants are predominantly ethnic Somali and Muslim. The title "Somali Galbeed", which means "Western Somalia," is often preferred by Somali irredentists.The region, which is...

), dated 10 December 1883, Rimbaud proposed setting up a trading post at Imi, "a large, permanent village situated on the Ogadine bank of the river, eight days from Harar by caravan."

Near Imi, Ras Makonnen Wolde Mikael's troops had suffered a grievous defeat by the Rer Amaden warriors in 1890. A British hunter Colonel Swayne, who visited Imi in February 1893, was shown "the remains of the bivouac of an enormous Abyssinian army which had been defeated some two or three years before." Italian explorers who visited Imi early in 1891 found the once prosperous village "squalid" and miserable because of raids from Harar. A local landmark in Imi is the tomb of Mohammed Abdullah Hassan

Mohammed Abdullah Hassan

Sayyīd Muhammad `Abd Allāh al-Hasan was a Somali religious and patriotic leader...

, known as "Mad Mullah"; he died in 1921, but by the 1930s his tomb had become a shapeless heap of rubble.

In 1964 the Bale rebels attacked larger settlements, such as Kere

Kèrè

Kèrè is a town and arrondissement in the Collines department of Benin. It is an administrative division under the jurisdiction of the commune of Dassa-Zoumé. According to the population census conducted by the Institut National de la Statistique Benin on February 15, 2002, the arrondissement had a...

 and Imi and, while they failed to capture them, they succeeded in gaining control of the rest of the district as smaller posts were abandoned by government forces. Of these two, Imi was the only one which the rebels at one point captured and held briefly. Twelve years later, 17 policemen were reported killed from an attack on Imi in October 1976. During the Ogaden War

Ogaden War

The Ogaden War was a conventional conflict between Somalia and Ethiopia in 1977 and 1978 over the Ogaden region of Ethiopia. In a notable illustration of the nature of Cold War alliances, the Soviet Union switched from supplying aid to Somalia to supporting Ethiopia, which had previously been...

, well-armed guerillas besieged Imi and other local towns.