Dembī Dolo, Ethiopia

History

Originally known as Sayo, after the semi-autonomous kingdom that had ruled in this area in the years after 1900, by 1920 this town served as the seat of the governors of this part of south-western Ethiopia until the Italian conquest. During this period Dembidolo was "a great commercial centre for coffee, where by the 1930s perhaps 500,000 kilos of beans, besides large quantities of wax and skins, were exported every year to the Sudan." Emperor Iyasu V visited Dembidolo around 1912, and was welcomed by Dejazmach Jote.

By 1958 Dembi Dollo became one of 27 places in Ethiopia ranked as First Class Township. That same year, the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia opened a branch in the town.

The last military action of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) before the demise of the Derg in 1991 occurred at Dembi Dollo, when some of its units reportedly killed more than 700 government soldiers. Afterwards, the OLF assumed civilian control of Dembi Dollo and its surrounding territory. However, when the OLF found that their efforts to field candidates in the rest of the Oromia region were frustrated by the Oromo Peoples' Democratic Organization the OLF withdrew from the government in 1992. This proved to be a disaster for the OLF, as EPRDF forces captured Dembi Dollo and forcibly drove the OLF membership into exile.

A modern water supply system was expected to be completed in the town by October 2017.

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