Degeh Bur, Ethiopia

History

During the nineteenth century, Degehabur was an important stopping point for caravans crossing the Haud for Hargeisa and Berbera, but when Major H.G.C. Swayne travelled through the area in 1893, he found it abandoned and uses it as an example of the destruction caused by "the insecurity resulting from inter-tribal feuds." According to Swayne, at the time of his visit "there were formerly many square miles of jowdri cultivation, which has been abandoned within the last few years, and now there is only left an immense area of stubble and the ruins of the village. Dagahbur used to be a thriving settlement of one thousand five hundred inhabitants ... now not a hut is left."

In the 1920s Degehabur started to recover. It was said that there were some two hundred villages within the distance of a day's travel and that these used the market at Degehabur. By 1931 there were motorable roads in five directions out from the town. Wealthy inhabitants had started erecting two-story buildings.

In 1927, Ethiopian soldiers attacked the British governor of Somaliland while he was in Degehabur on a hunting trip, killing eight of his bodyguards. The British Government protested but was met with little response from Ras Tafari, who claimed that he was not able to keep some of his men in order.

From the History section of Degehabur on Wikipedia, under CC BY-SA 4.0.