Jaldessa

Jaldessa is the area of the Issa, Somali near the border with the Nole Oromo and it was the traditional seat of the Issa Ugaas. In 1875 Egyptian troops set up a fort to secure supply from the coast, and a contingent of Sudanese soldiers was stationed with an Egyptian officer. People built huts around the station, which was fortified with stones and hedgerows, the Somali on one side and the Oromo on the other. The Ugas of Issa, Roble Farah, moved his seat to Jaldessa. Its population increased to 1,500 and doubled or tripled on market days. After the Egyptians left Harar in 1885, Britain took possession of Jaldessa and stationed a garrison of 19 Indians and 20 Somalis. During the 19th century, Jaldessa was an important station on the trade route between Harar and the Red Sea coast.[1] W.C. Barker, writing in 1842, mentions it as a stopping place in the territory of the Nole Oromo, on the caravan route between Zeila and Harar.[2] The party of Italian explorer Count Pietro Porro was ambushed and slaughtered at Jaldessa in April 1886, which provided Menelik II of Shewa with an excuse to attack Harar.[3] Between the Shewan victory at Chelenqo and the foundation of Dire Dawa, Jaldessa was the seat of the local Ethiopian governor, Ato Mersha Nahusenay. The opening of the Addis Ababa - Djibouti Railway and the birth of Dire Dawa diminished the strategic importance of Jaldessa.[4]

Early in the Ogaden War, Jaldessa was captured by Somali units as they closed in on Dire Dawa; it was recaptured 4 February 1978 by the Ethiopian Ninth Division with Cuban tank and artillery shock troops.[5]

In 2008, the United States of America selected Jaldessa as one of seven locations where servicemen of the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa worked with Ethiopian veterinarians to vaccinate more than 20,000 animals: cattle were inoculated against blackleg and anthrax, while sheep and goats were inoculated against contagious caprine pleuro-pneumonia and peste des petits ruminants.[6]