Imi, Ethiopia

Probably the earliest European explorer to visit Imi was Arthur Rimbaud, who was working at the time as a commercial agent in Harar for the firm of Mazeran, Vinnay and Barday. In a report of his expeditions into the Somali state, dated 10 December 1883, Rimbaud proposed setting up a trading post at Imi, "a large, permanent village situated on the bank of the river, eight days from Harar by caravan."[1]

Near Imi, Ras Makonnen Wolde Mikael's troops had suffered a grievous defeat by the Ogaden warriors in 1890. A British hunter Colonel Swayne, who visited Imi in February 1893, was shown "the remains of the bivouac of an enormous Abyssinian army which had been defeated some two or three years before."[2] Italian explorers who visited Imi early in 1891 found the once prosperous village "squalid" and miserable because of raids from Harar. A local landmark in Imi is the tomb of Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, known as "Mad Mullah"; he died in 1921, but by the 1930s his tomb had become a shapeless heap of rubble.[3]

In 1964 the Bale rebels attacked larger settlements, such as El-kare and Imi and, while they failed to capture them, they succeeded in gaining control of the rest of the district as smaller posts were abandoned by government forces. Of these two, Imi was the only one which the rebels at one point captured and held briefly. Twelve years later, 17 policemen were reported killed from an attack on Imi in October 1976. During the Somali Western War, well-armed guerillas besieged both two Imi's cities and other local towns.[3]