Maychew

Maychew
Maychew Location within Ethiopia
Coordinates: 12°47′N 39°32′E / 12.783°N 39.533°E / 12.783; 39.533Coordinates: 12°47′N 39°32′E / 12.783°N 39.533°E / 12.783; 39.533
Country	Ethiopia
Region	Tigray
Zone	Dubawi (Southern)
Elevation	2,479 m (8,133 ft)
Population (2005)
- Total	34,379
Time zone	EAT (UTC+3)

Maychew (Tigrinya ማይጭው "Salty water," also transliterated Mai Ceu, Maich'ew, and Mai Cio) is a town in northern Ethiopia. Located 190 kilometers north of Dessie on the Addis Ababa - Asmara highway in the Debubawi (Southern) Zone of the Tigray Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of 12°47′N 39°32′E / 12.783°N 39.533°E / 12.783; 39.533 and an elevation of 2479 meters. It is the administrative center of Endamehoni woreda.

Between February 1999 and April 2000, SUR Construction built a road segments connecting Maychew with Alamata by way of Mehoni about 68 kilometers in length.^[1] A notable landmark in this town is the church Maychew Mikael Bete Kristiyan.

History

After his capture in 1921 by Gugsa Araya Selassie, the deposed Lij Iyasu was detained for two weeks at Maychew.^[2]

Near Maychew, on March 31, 1936, the conclusive battle of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia was fought. By means of more sophisticated and powerful weaponry and superior numbers, along with modern training, the Italians routed the Ethiopian forces, and six weeks later marched unopposed into the capital, Addis Ababa.

During the Italian occupation, the inhabitants included about 500 local population and 22 Italians. Facilities included telephone service, an infirmary, a gas station, restaurant, and a Tuesday market.^[3]

In the early years of the Ethiopian Civil War, the Derg required that all vehicles travelling north from Maychew be restricted to convoys. By 1980, convoys were deemed necessary to move even the 20 kilometers from Maychew to Mehoni. During the 1984 - 1985 famine in Ethiopia, the commander of the First Division, Colonel Hailu Gebre Yohannis, ordered the theft of food stocks from the NGO World Vision in Maychew to feed his hungry troops. By 8 September 1989, Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front forces had captured Maychew and Korem, and afterwards advanced along the main highway southwards.^[3]

Demographics

Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency in 2005, Maychew has an estimated total population of 34,379 of whom 16,702 are men and 17,222 are women.^[4] The 1994 census reported it had a total population of 19,757 of whom 8,894 were men and 10,863 were women.

Notes

1. ^ "SUR Construction PLC - Major Projects", SUR Construction webpage (accessed 6 May 2010
2. ^ Harold Marcus, Haile Sellassie I: The Formative Years (Lawrenceville: Red Sea Press, 1996), pp. 47f
3. ^ ^{a b} "Local History in Ethiopia" The Nordic Africa Institute website (accessed 14 February 2008)
4. ^ CSA 2005 National Statistics, Table B.4