Rama is a town in northern 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...

. Located 35 km north of the town of 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...

 and 7 kilometers from the border with Eritrea

Eritrea

Eritrea , officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea derives it's name from the Greek word Erethria, meaning 'red land'. The capital is Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast...

, in the Mehakelegnaw (Central) 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 occupies a fertile lowland area and has a latitude and longitude of 14°25′N 38°47′E with an elevation of 1385 meters above sea level. It is the administrative center of Mereb Lehe

Mereb Lehe

Mereb Lehe is one of the 36 woredas in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Mehakelegnaw Zone, It is bordered on the south by La'ilay Maychew, on the southwest by Tahtay Maychew, on the west by the Mi'irabawi Zone, on the north by the Mareb River , on the east by Enticho, and on the...

 woreda

Woreda

Woreda is an administrative division of Ethiopia , equivalent to a district . Woredas are composed of a number of Kebele, or neighborhood associations, which are the smallest unit of local government in Ethiopia...

.

Rama was recently the site for a pilot project for providing electricity to rural inhabitants, which has been a challenge for African governments, since villages in rural areas are often difficult to connect to national electricity grids. Since the project started in 2007, Rama has 2,100 houses with solar panels, and as of July 2009 there are 300 more requests for new solar home systems in Rama. One panel powers about four lamps, and the energy can also be used for radios and tape recorders.

A point of interest in Rama is the nearby church, Kor Nebir Mikael. Records at the Nordic Africa Institute website provide details of a primary school in Rama in the year 1968.

On 29 September 1988, armed units of the Tigray People's Liberation Front overran Rama, killing 21 and capturing 854 government soldiers. This required the 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...

 to send a force to recover this important settlement on the road to Asmara

Asmara

Asmara is the capital city and largest settlement in Eritrea, home to a population of around 579,000 people...

, but it was not until late December that the 10th division of the Second Revolutionary Army fought its way into the town, only to be withdrawn a week before the decisive Battle of Shire. In January, 2005, the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea

United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea

The United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea was established by the United Nations Security Council in July 2000 to monitor a ceasefire in the border war that began in 1998 between Ethiopia and Eritrea....

 reported that MECHEM had removed land mines from 12 kilometers of track leading to Rama. These mines had been laid during the recent Eritrean-Ethiopian War

Eritrean-Ethiopian War

The Eritrean–Ethiopian War took place from May 1998 to June 2000 between Ethiopia and Eritrea, forming one of the conflicts in the Horn of Africa...

.

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, this town had an estimated total population of 7,824 of whom 3,705 were males and 4,119 were females. The 1994 census reported it had a total population of 4,504 of whom 1,973 were males and 2,531 were females.