Wollo

Wollo was a historical region and province in the northeastern part of Ethiopia, with its capital city at Dessie. [ [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Welo,+Ethiopia&sll=37.0625,-95.677071&sspn=30.185946,59.0625&ie=UTF8&t=h&om=1&ll=11.824341,40.352783&spn=2.327892,3.691406&z=8 Satellite image of the Wollo region in the Ethiopian Highlands] at Google Maps] The province was named after the Wollo Oromo, who settled in this part of Ethiopia in the 17th century. An older name for Wollo is Lakomelza.

Following the liberation of Ethiopia from Italian occupation in 1941, the provinces of Amhara Sayunt, Azabo, Lasta, Raya Province, Wag, and Yejju were added to Wollo. [This list of provinces is based on the map in Bahru Zewde, "A History of Modern Ethiopia" (London: James Currey, 1991), p. 86.] With the adoption of the constitution in 1995, Wollo was divided between the Afar Region which absorbed the part of the province that extended into the Afar Depression, the Tigray Region, which annexed the northwestern corner, and the Amhara Region which absorbed the remainder of the province in the Ethiopian highlands.

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