Bambasi is a town in western Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

. The town is named after the highest point in the Asosa Zone

Asosa Zone

Asosa is one of the three Zones in Benishangul-Gumuz Region of Ethiopia. This Zone was named after the Asosa Sultanate, which had approximately the same boundaries. Asosa is bordered on the south by the Mao-Komo special woreda, on the west by Sudan, on the northeast by the Abay River which...

 of the Benishangul-Gumuz Region, Mount Bambasi. Bambasi has a longitude and latitude of 9°45′N 34°44′E with an elevation of 1668 meters above sea level. It is the administrative center of Bambasi

Bambasi (woreda)

Bambasi is one of the 21 woredas in the Benishangul-Gumuz Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Asosa Zone, it is bordered by the Mao-Komo special woreda on the southwest, Asosa in the northwest, by Menge in the north, by Oda Godere in the northeast, and by the Oromia Region in the south.This woreda and...

 woreda

Woreda

Woreda is an administrative division of Ethiopia , equivalent to a district . Woredas are composed of a number of Kebele, or neighborhood associations, which are the smallest unit of local government in Ethiopia...

.

Bambasi is located on the Gimbi

Gimbi

Gimbi is a town in western Ethiopia. Located in the West Welega Zone of the Oromia Region, it has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation between 1845 and 1930 meters above sea level. It is the administrative center of Gimbi woreda....

-Asosa

Asosa

Asosa is a town in western Ethiopia and the capital of the Benishangul-Gumuz Region of Ethiopia. Located in the Asosa Zone, this town has a latitude and longitude of , with an elevation of 1570 meters....

 road, making the town one of the few in the Region accessible by motor vehicle with the rest of Ethiopia.

History

In the later 19th century, Bambasi was seat of the Sheikhdom of Bambasi, which had been established following the conquest of Ismail bin Muhammad Ali, son of Wali

Wali

Walī , is an Arabic word meaning "custodian", "protector", "sponsor", or authority as denoted by its definition "crown". "Wali" is someone who has "Walayah" over somebody else. For example, in Fiqh the father is wali of his children. In Islam, the phrase ولي الله walīyu 'llāh...

 Muhammad Ali

Muhammad Ali of Egypt

Muhammad Ali Pasha al-Mas'ud ibn Agha was a commander in the Ottoman army, who became Wāli, and self-declared Khedive of Egypt and Sudan...

. Although it was a notorious center of the slave trade

Arab slave trade

The Arab slave trade was the practice of slavery in the Arab World, mainly Western Asia, North Africa, East Africa and certain parts of Europe during their period of domination by Arab leaders. The trade was focused on the slave markets of the Middle East and North Africa...

, by the 1880s the Sheikhdom derived a significant share of its revenue from taxing the salt trade between the rest of Sudan

Sudan

Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...

 and the nearby Oromo

Oromo people

The Oromo are an ethnic group found in Ethiopia, northern Kenya, .and parts of Somalia. With 30 million members, they constitute the single largest ethnic group in Ethiopia and approximately 34.49% of the population according to the 2007 census...

s.

A description of Bambasi in the Guido (published in 1938) describes it as consisting of three groups of houses at the base of Mount Bambasi, and supplied with abundant water and a market. The town was captured by the Oromo Liberation Front

Oromo Liberation Front

The Oromo Liberation Front , or OLF, is an organization established in 1973 by Oromo nationalists to promote self-determination for the Oromo people against what they call "Abyssinian colonial rule". It has been outlawed and labeled as a terrorist organization by the Ethiopian government...

 (OLF) on 7 January 1990, and six Cuban doctors and nurses were taken hostages after five days of heavy fighting. In response government aircraft subjected Bambasi to aerial attacks; details on the casualties are not available. The following month, the OLF clandestine radio reported that the group had killed 84 government soldiers in a clash between Bambasi and Mendi

Mendi, Ethiopia

Mendi is a town in western Ethiopia. Located in the Mirab Welega Zone of the Oromia Region, this town has a latitude and longitude of and an elevation of 1538 meters above sea level. It is the administrative center of Mana Sibu woreda....

.

On 2 April 2007, local Muslims in Bambasi raided the house of evangelist Tolosa Megersa, resulting in the death of six of his cattle and sheep. Five days later, the home of another local Christian leader, Lemmu Abdissa, was raided resulting in the destruction of all his property including 8,815 pounds of grain.

Demographics

Based on figures from the Central Statistical Agency

Central Statistical Agency (Ethiopia)

The Central Statistical Agency is an agency of the government of Ethiopia designated to provide all surveys and censuses for that country used to monitor economic and social growth, as well as to act as an official training center in that field. It is part of the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance and...

 in 2005, Bambasi has an estimated total population of 7,166 of whom 3,653 are men and 3,513 are women.

According to the 1994 national census, its total population was 4,164 of whom 2,114 were men and 2,050 were women. The ethnic breakdown was 41.47% Oromo

Oromo people

The Oromo are an ethnic group found in Ethiopia, northern Kenya, .and parts of Somalia. With 30 million members, they constitute the single largest ethnic group in Ethiopia and approximately 34.49% of the population according to the 2007 census...

, 33.02 % Amhara

Amhara people

Amhara are a highland people inhabiting the Northwestern highlands of Ethiopia. Numbering about 19.8 million people, they comprise 26% of the country's population, according to the 2007 national census...

, 17.31% Berta

Berta people

The Berta or Bertha are an ethnic group living along the border of Sudan and Ethiopia. They speak a Nilo-Saharan language that is not related to those of their Nilo-Saharan neighbors . Their total Ethiopian population is about 183,000 people....

 (or Jebelawi, including Fadashi), 5.38% Tigray and 2.81% others. Concerning religion, 48.08% were Muslims

Islam in Ethiopia

According to the latest 2007 national census, Islam is the second most widely practised religion in Ethiopia after Christianity, with over 25 million of Ethiopians adhering to Islam according to the 2007 national census, having arrived in Ethiopia in 615...

, 45.24% Orthodox Christians and 4.68 % Protestants

P'ent'ay

P'ent'ay or Pentay is a slang term widely used in modern Ethiopia, and among Ethiopians living abroad, to describe Ethiopian Christians who are not members of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo, Ethiopian Orthodox Tehadeso, Roman Catholic or Ethiopian Catholic churches...

.

Many Amhara settlers from the former Wollo Province live in Bambasi.