Chinhahsan is a city in eastern 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...

. Located in the Jijiga Zone

Jijiga Zone

Jijiga is one of nine zones of the Ethiopian Somali Region. This zone is named after its largest city, Jijiga. Other towns and cities in this zone include Qarbibayax, Dhurwaale Awbere, Derwonaji, tuli gulled and Hart Sheik...

 of the Somali Region

Somali Region

Somali Region ; is the eastern-most of the nine ethnic divisions of Ethiopia. It is often called Somalia, though it is not to be confused with the independent country of the same name. The capital of Somali State is Jijiga...

, this city has a latitude and longitude of 9°30′N 42°42′E with an elevation of 1816 meters above sea level.

Chinhahsan is a settlement with stone walls built at the foot of an oval hill; on the hill are ruins of fortifications possibly of Abyssinian origins. This is one of several places where local tradition claims that Imam

Imam

An imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...

 Ahmed Gragn was born of a Christian priest and a Moslem woman. About half a kilometer away are the remains of an ancient ketema or fortified enclosure named Derbiga, which different legends state was built either by a giant named Arla or by the Ethiopian Emperor Zara Yaqob. Huntingford speculates that Chinhahsan is where Dakkar

Dakkar

Dakkar was one of the capitals of the Adal Sultanate. G.W.B. Huntingford suggests that it might be the same as the modern Chinhahsan, which is located at the edge of the Marar plain 15 miles NW of Jijiga....

, one of the capitals of the Adal Sultanate

Adal Sultanate

The Adal Sultanate or the Kingdom of Adal was a medieval multi-ethnic Muslim state located in the Horn of Africa.-Overview:...

.

The writer Nega Mezlekia

Nega Mezlekia

Nega Mezlekia is an Ethiopian writer who writes in English. His first language is the Amharic language, but since the 1980s he has lived in Canada so speaks and writes in English....

, an 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...

 from Jijiga who had joined the Western Somali Liberation Movement, relates how he participated in an attack on a Derg

Derg

The Derg or Dergue was a Communist military junta that came to power in Ethiopia following the ousting of Haile Selassie I. Derg, which means "committee" or "council" in Ge'ez, is the short name of the Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army, a committee of...

 military training camp in Chinhahsan. No prisoners were taken in the attack; those who surrendered were shot dead. Early in the Ogaden War

Ogaden War

The Ogaden War was a conventional conflict between Somalia and Ethiopia in 1977 and 1978 over the Ogaden region of Ethiopia. In a notable illustration of the nature of Cold War alliances, the Soviet Union switched from supplying aid to Somalia to supporting Ethiopia, which had previously been...

, Chinhahsan was captured by Somali

Somalia

Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...

 units as they advanced on Dire Dawa; it was recaptured by Ethiopian units between 5 and 9 February 1978.

In late January 2009, the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation completed an 27-km electric power line 27 kilometers in length from Jijiga

Jijiga

Jijiga is a city in eastern Ethiopia and the capital of the Somali Region of that country. Located in the Jijiga Zone approximately 80 km east of Harar and 60 km west of the border with Somalia, this city has a latitude and longitude of with an elevation of 1,609 meters above sea...

 to Chinhahsan, while constructing six power distributors in the town. This provided 24-hour electric service to Chinhahsan for the first time.

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, Chinhahsan has an estimated total population of 11,558 of whom 5,981 are men and 5,577 are women. According to the 1994 national census this city had a population of 56,821 people. This town is one of the two largest settlements in Jijiga

Jijiga (woreda)

Jijiga is one of the 67 woredas in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Jijiga Zone, Jijiga is bordered on the south by Babille, on the southwest by Gursum, on the west by the Oromia Region, on the north by the Shinile Zone, on the northeast by Awbere and on the southeast by the Degehabur Zone...

 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...

.

The 1997 census reported this town had a total population of 7,753 of whom 3,951 were men and 3,802 women. The three largest ethnic groups reported in this town were the 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...

 (64.72%), Somali

Somali people

Somalis are an ethnic group located in the Horn of Africa, also known as the Somali Peninsula. The overwhelming majority of Somalis speak the Somali language, which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family...

(20.59%), and the Amhara (10.8%); all other ethnic groups made up the remaining 3.89% of the residents.