Mek'ele

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Mek'elē is a city and woreda in northern Ethiopia. Located in Enderta which is in the Debubawi Zone, Mekele is the capital of the Tigray Region and home to the headquarters of the United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea. It is located some 650 kilometres north of the capital, Addis Ababa, at 13°29′N, 39°28′E.

A typical street in the center of Mekele.

Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency in 2005, Mekele has an estimated total population of 169,207, of whom 85,876 were males and 83,331 were females. The woreda has an estimated area of 24.44 square kilometers, which gives Mekele a density of 6,923.40 people per square kilometer.^[1] According to the 1994 census, 96,938 people lived in Mekele, making it the largest city in northern Ethiopia.

1 History
2 UN Intervention
3 Notes
4 External links

[edit] History

According to local historians Mekelle was founded in the 13th century. However, its heyday came soon after Yohannes IV's nineteenth century capital city was crowned as king of the kings of Ethiopia (1871-1889). Emperor Yohannes chose Mekelle as the seat of his government and built his graceful palace, still intact, in 1870s. The palace now serves as a museum. The Emperor’s throne, royal bed, ceremonial dress, rifles and many other valuable historical collections can be seen in the museum. Mekelle has more recently become a town where rapid political and economic developments are taking place. It is also becoming an educational center, with amazing proliferation of institutions of public and private higher home to A new international standard airport has been inaugurated very recently Alula Aba Nega Airport (ICAO code HAMK, IATA MQX) and northern Ethiopia's principal cement production facility.

During the 1984 - 1985 famine in Ethiopia, Mek'ele was notorious for the "hunger camps" around the city.

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

Monument commemorating the war against the Derg.

In May 2000, Mekelle University was created by the merger of Mekelle Business College and Mekelle University College.

[edit] UN Intervention

The United Nations Mission in Ethiopia and Eritrea (UNMEE) headquarters was established in Mekele in 2000 following the end of the Eritrean-Ethiopian War. Currently, tensions between Ethiopia and Eritrea are still high; therefore the UNMEE is still alert and active in Mekele, as well as out of Mekele.