Kombolcha

History

Tadesse Tamrat records that archeologists discovered "some remains of Christian settlements", dated to the late first millennium of the current era. When the missionary Johann Ludwig Krapf was led as a prisoner from Adare Bille's capital to the Teledere House in April 1843 he had passed through Kombolcha, which he described as a village near the source of the Borkana River. Kombolcha was described during the Italian occupation as having postal and telephone service, a clinic, a general store, a barrack village of the A.A.S.S., as well as other improvements intended for Italians. The city was used as a base by the United Nations relief organization and other humanitarian groups during the 1984 famine. On 19 November 1989 the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front (TPLF) claimed to have captured Kombolcha. However, the highway from Kombolcha to Assab was not fully brought under TPLF control until the Derg was expelled from Tigray later that year. During the Tigray War, Tigrayan forces said they had captured the town on 31 October 2021. The Ethiopian government accused the Tigrayan forces of killing 100 youth in the town on 1 November 2021, Tigrayan forces denied the claim. The Ethiopian Government claimed that the TPLF had "ransacked and destroyed Kombolcha's infrastructure" after its capture. Al Jazeera and BBC reported that WFP suspended food distribution in Dessie and Kombolcha due this mass looting of the supplies. Most of the construction equipment of the Awash–Weldiya Railway project was looted or destroyed, and part of the infrastructure of the almost-finished railway, such as tunnels and bridges, was damaged. The disruption has thrown several thousand railway workers out of work. By 6 December 2021, the Ethiopian government announced that Dessie and Kombolcha…

Most-observed species

• Dusky Turtle-Dove

  Streptopelia lugens (Rüppell, 1837) · Aves
  3
• Recurved Thorn-apple, Pricklyburr, Downy thorn-apple

  Datura innoxia Mill. · Magnoliopsida
  2
• gelada

  Theropithecus gelada (Rüppell, 1835) · Mammalia
  1
• Greater Blue-eared Starling

  Lamprotornis chalybaeus Hemprich & Ehrenberg, 1828 · Aves
  1
• Baglafecht Weaver

  Ploceus baglafecht (Daudin, 1802) · Aves
  1
• Red-eyed Dove

  Streptopelia semitorquata (Rüppell, 1837) · Aves
  1
• Abyssinian-banana

  Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman · Liliopsida
  1
• Centuryplant

  Agave americana L. · Liliopsida
  1

Most recent

• M 4.4 — 2024-07-06
  38 km S of Robīt, Ethiopia
• M 4.5 — 2020-01-20
  16 km S of Kemis?, Ethiopia
• M 4.2 — 2014-06-20
  56 km WNW of Were ?lu, Ethiopia
• M 4.6 — 2005-09-28
  65 km NNE of Bat?, Ethiopia
• M 4.1 — 2005-09-25
  59 km NE of Bat?, Ethiopia
• M 4.6 — 2004-01-18
  23 km WSW of Kemis?, Ethiopia