User:Tariku1611

mekele

According to local historians Mek'ele was founded in the 13th century. Mek'ele was one of the major cities of Enderta province alongside Antalo. Mek'ele's heyday came later during the late nineteenth century, after Yohannes IV was crowned as King of Kings of Ethiopia, and chose Mek'ele as the capital of his realm. It was here that his son and heir, Ras Araya Selassie, died of smallpox in June 1888 while assembling an army to support his father. After Yohannes' death at the Battle of Metemma, his successor Emperor Menelik II came to Mek'ele 23 February 1890, where he accepted the submission of the nobles of Tigray—except for Mangesha Yohannes who had made an appointment to submit 20 days later.[4] Mekelle Alula Abanega Airport

The Italians occupied Mek'ele from the beginning of the First Italo-Abyssinian War (late 1895) until they surrendered their half-completed fort built on the graveyard of the church of Enda Yesus in January 1896 following the conclusion of the Siege of Mek'ele. The telegraph line the Italians constructed between 1902 and 1904 from Asmara south to Addis Ababa passed through the town, giving it a local telegraph office.[3] Writing in the 1890s, Augustus B. Wylde described the Mek'ele market, held on Mondays, as large in size, with the "largest salt market in all Abyssinia", and cattle of all sorts available.[5]

During the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, the Italian forces of General Emilio De Bono captured Mek'ele on 8 November 1935.

Mek'ele was held by the rebels during the "Woyane Rebellion," following their capture of Qwiha on the main Asmera - Addis Ababa highway 17 September 1943, and after government troops evacuated their fortified position at Inda Iyesus a few days later. The government recovered Mek'ele on 14 October, following their defeat of the Woyane in the Battle of Amba Alagi,[6] but the fighting was so intense that when Thomas Pakenham visited the city in 1954, he found it "a bleak town in a bleak landscape. I was disturbed by the atmosphere. ... Many of the buildings were in ruins; and there were no new buildings to compensate as there had been in Gondar. I asked an old man in a bar why there was so much damage. He said that I should know; it was we who had bombed it."[7]

In 1957, Yohannes IV School was one of 9 provincial secondary schools in Ethiopia (excluding Eritrea; that same year a 100-number telephone swtichboard had been installed at Mek'ele. The next year, Mek'ele was one of 27 places in Ethiopia ranked as a First Class Township.[3]

When the Ethiopian Revolution exploded, Ras Mengesha Seyoum was governor in Mek'ele. The Derg ordered him on October 1974 to the capital to face charges of corruption; instead he fled to the hills, where he founded a group that eventually became the Ethiopian Democratic Union.[8]

During the 1984 - 1985 famine in Ethiopia, Mek'ele was notorious for the seven "hunger camps" around the city. These housed 75,000 refugees with 20,000 more waiting to enter; during March 1985, 50-60 people died in these seven camps every day. In February 1986, the TPLF released 1,800 political prisoners from the Mek'ele prison in a daring military action. The operation was named "Agazi" after one of the founder fighters of the TPLF, who had been killed in the second year of the Ethiopian Civil War.[3] Monument commemorating the war against the Derg overlooking the city.

In a series of offensives launched on 25 February 1988 TPLF fighters bypassed Mek'ele but took control of Maychew, Korem and other places along the Dessie-Mekele road, and by June 1988 TPLF controlled all of Tigray except the town of Mek'ele and the territory a radius of 15 kilometers around the city. In response, the Derg had a number of villages around Mek'ele burned 4–5 June, which included Addi Gera, Bahri, Goba Zena, Grarot, Issala, and Rabea. It was not until 25 February 1989 that Mek'ele was also occupied by the TPLF, after the government position in Tigray had collapsed.[3]

On 5 June 1998 the Eritrean Air Force bombed Ayder School in Mek'elē during the Eritrean-Ethiopian War killing twelve. A monument commemorates this event.[3]

On 29 December 2002, a riot broke out between Ethiopian Orthodox and Adventist worshippers, over an Adventist prayer service being conducted in a stadium. Some Ethiopian Orthodox believers, upset by the display of public Adventist preaching, reportedly sparked the clashes by first throwing stones at Adventists gathered in the stadium, then by looting Adventist offices in the city. Police intervened to break up the riots, which resulted in five dead and three seriously injured. The police reported that 10 people were detained, but independent sources reported that the number was much larger.[9]