Debarwa is a market town with a population of about 25,000 in central Eritrea

Eritrea

Eritrea , officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa. Eritrea derives it's name from the Greek word Erethria, meaning 'red land'. The capital is Asmara. It is bordered by Sudan in the west, Ethiopia in the south, and Djibouti in the southeast...

, about 25 kilometers south of the capital Asmara

Asmara

Asmara is the capital city and largest settlement in Eritrea, home to a population of around 579,000 people...

. It is the capital of the Debarwa

Debarwa District

Debarwa District is a district in the Debub region of Eritrea. Its capital lies at Debarwa.-References:*...

 district

Districts of Eritrea

The regions of Eritrea are divided into districts, as follows:-Anseba Region:* Adi Tekelezan* Asmat* Elabered* Geleb* Hagaz* Halhal* Habero* Keren City* Kerkebet* Sela-Central Region:* Berikh* Ghala Nefhi* North Eastern* Serejaka...

 (Tsilima) in the Debub ("Southern") administrative region

Regions of Eritrea

||At the time of Independence in 1993 Eritrea was arranged into ten provinces. These provinces were similar to the nine provinces operating during the colonial period. In 1996, these were consolidated into six regions...

 (one of five in Eritrea). A High School and Junior school serve the local villages, while telephone and mail services are provided for the outlying population.

History

Debarwa was formerly the capital of an ancient Kingdom named Medri Bahri which roughly translates as sealand, and was ruled by the Bahr negus (King of the sea). The Portuguese expedition under Cristóvão da Gama

Cristovão da Gama

Cristóvão da Gama was a Portuguese soldier, who led a Portuguese army of 400 musketeers on a crusade in Ethiopia and Somalia against the far larger Somali Muslim army of Imam Ahmad ibn Ibrihim al-Ghazi aided by the Ottoman Empire...

 spent the rainy season of 1542 in Debarwa as the guests of the Bahr negus. The Ottomans invaded part of Midre Bahri in 1557, and for several decades struggled for control over the local population and their Ethiopian neighbors. By the time everything settled, the Ottomans were confined to Suakin

Suakin

Suakin or Sawakin is a port in north-eastern Sudan, on the west coast of the Red Sea. In 1983 it had a population of 18,030 and the 2009 estimate is 43, 337.It was formerly the region's chief port, but is now secondary to Port Sudan, about 30 miles north. The old city built of coral is in ruins...

, Massawa

Massawa

Massawa, also known as Mitsiwa Massawa, also known as Mitsiwa Massawa, also known as Mitsiwa (Ge'ez ምጽዋዕ , formerly ባጽዕ is a city on the Red Sea coast of Eritrea. An important port for many centuries, it was ruled by a succession of polities, including the Axumite Empire, the Umayyad Caliphate,...

, Hergigo

Arkiko

Arkiko is a town in the Northern Red Sea region of Eritrea. Situated on the Red Sea, it lies on the mainland across from the island of Massawa.-Overview:...

 and the immediate hinterlands, but at times their raids would reach into Bogos, Hamasien and Habab districts of Eritrea.

The town was hard hit by a typhus

Typhus

Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...

 epidemic in 1893, which followed the misery of the Great Famine (1888-1892). A French visitor described Debarwa as "decimated", and all that was left of the once prosperous town were "a few piles of stones, an almost ruined church, and a few wretched hovels".

Demographics

The majority of the population in Debarwa belongs to the Bihér-Tigrigna (Tigrinya-speaking ethnic group. In terms of faith, local residents are mainly adherents of the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Church

Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Church

The Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church is an Oriental Orthodox church. Its autocephaly was recognised by Pope Shenouda III after Eritrea gained its independence in 1993.-Origins:...

.

Economy

Local people bring produce such as potatoes, tomatoes, chickens and grain to the market every Saturday. Aside from being a market town, it is also a mining town with resources of high grade gold

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

, copper

Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...

, silver

Silver

Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

 and zinc

Zinc

Zinc , or spelter , is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...

, and an important transport route between the south-west corner of Zoba Debub and Asmara. The Japanese company Hitachi

Hitachi, Ltd.

is a Japanese multinational conglomerate headquartered in Marunouchi 1-chome, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. The company is the parent of the Hitachi Group as part of the larger DKB Group companies...

 once operated a mine near Debarwa, but it was shut down in the 1960s due to the outbreak of the Eritrean War of Independence

Eritrean War of Independence

The Eritrean War of Independence was a conflict fought between the Ethiopian government and Eritrean separatists, both before and during the Ethiopian Civil War. The war started when Eritrea’s autonomy within Ethiopia, where troops were already stationed, was unilaterally revoked...

from Ethiopia.