Humera is a town in northern 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...

, near the borders 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 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...

. Located in Mi'irabawi Zone

Mi'irabawi Zone

Mi'irabawi is one of four Zones in the Ethiopian Tigray Region. Mi'irabawi is bordered on the east by the Mehakelegnaw Zone, the south by the Amhara Region, the west by Sudan and on the north by Eritrea...

 of the Tigray Region

Tigray Region

Tigray Region is the northernmost of the nine ethnic regions of Ethiopia containing the homeland of the Tigray people. It was formerly known as Region 1...

, this town has a latitude and a longitude of 14°18′N 36°37′E. Humera is the administrative center of Kafta Humera

Kafta Humera

Kafta Humera is one of the 36 woredas in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Mi'irabawi Zone, Kafta Humera is bordered on the south by Tsegede, on the west by Sudan, then by the Tekezé River which separates Kafta Humera from Eritrea on the north and Tahtay Adiyabo on the east, and on the...

 woreda.

Overview

Humera is served by Humera Airport (ICAO code HAHU, IATA HUE). Although it has not been operational due to an ongoing border dispute, on 26 July 2009 after three years of construction by the Ethiopian Airports Enterprise, the airport was officially reopened. A runway three kilometers long and 45 meters wide was constructed, capable of handling present-day aircraft including Antonov 124

Antonov An-124

The Antonov An-124 Ruslan is a strategic airlift jet aircraft. It was designed by the Ukrainian SSR's Antonov design bureau, then part of the Soviet Union. It is the world's largest ever serially-manufactured cargo airplane and world's second largest operating cargo aircraft...

s.

The population increases dramatically each year during the farming season, when migrant workers arrive from all over the country. Sesame

Sesame

Sesame is a flowering plant in the genus Sesamum. Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a smaller number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions around the world and is cultivated for its edible seeds, which grow in pods....

, tef

Tef

TEF is an acronym for:*Tracheoesophageal fistula, a medical condition.*The Elias Fund, A nonprofit organization.*Test d'évaluation du français, a test of fluency in French for non-native speakers....

 and sorghum

Sorghum

Sorghum is a genus of numerous species of grasses, one of which is raised for grain and many of which are used as fodder plants either cultivated or as part of pasture. The plants are cultivated in warmer climates worldwide. Species are native to tropical and subtropical regions of all continents...

 are among the most common crops.

History

Humera is part of the Wolqayt

Wolqayt

Wolqayt is a woreda and region in northwestern Ethiopia...

-Tsegede

Tsegede

Tsegede is one of the 36 woredas in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. It is named after the historic province of Tsegede. Part of the Mi'irabawi Zone, Tsegede is bordered on the south and west by the Amhara Region, on the northwest by Kafta Humera, and on the north by Wolqayt...

 area, which historically has been part of the former province of Semien

Semien province

Semien Province was a historical province of northwest Ethiopia, often called Gondar. It was located south and west of the Tekezé River, and north of Lake Tsana. It was south west of Enderta Province, west of Tembien Province, and east of the Sudan. To some extent it covered the territory of the...

. During the Ethiopian Civil War

Ethiopian Civil War

The Ethiopian Civil War began on September 12, 1974 when the Marxist Derg staged a coup d'état against Emperor Haile Selassie, and lasted until the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front , a coalition of rebel groups, overthrew the government in 1991. The war overlapped other Cold War...

, Teranafit and its successor, the Ethiopian Democratic Union (EDU), drew much of their support from the commercial farmers of Humera and Wolqayit, and gained control of Humera in early 1977; 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...

 forces with tanks and armored cars retook Humera on 10 June, and the officers of the EDU fled to Sudan. The Derg used Humera as a base for military campaigns against the Tigrayan People's Liberation Front

Tigrayan People's Liberation Front

The Tigrayan People's Liberation Front , known more commonly and sometimes pejoratively in Ethiopia as Woyane or Weyane is a political party in Ethiopia...

 (TPLF) until their Third Revolutionary Army was crushed in the Battle of Shire on 19 February 1989; this forced the government to withdraw its garrison at Humera a few days later, and by the end of the month evacuate Tigray entirely. The TPLF then took control of the area, and created a supply line out of reach of the Derg.

In the first few months after the beginning of the Eritrean-Ethiopian War

Eritrean-Ethiopian War

The Eritrean–Ethiopian War took place from May 1998 to June 2000 between Ethiopia and Eritrea, forming one of the conflicts in the Horn of Africa...

, most of the population fled south to the villages of Ba'eker (11,000), May Kedra (5000), and Bereket (4000). These refugees have since returned home.

On 13 March 2008, a bomb exploded on a public bus in Humera, which killed eight persons and wounded at least 27 more. The government arrested the alleged perpetrators, who testified in court they had acted on behalf of dissident groups supported by Eritrea. Their trial was still in process at the end of the year.

Demographics

Based on the 2007 Census conducted by 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...

 of Ethiopia (CSA), this town has a total population of 21,653, of whom 11,395 are men and 10,258 women; this is an increase of 14,451 over the 1994 national census. With an area of 153.03 square kilometers, Humera has a population density of 141.50. A total of 49.84% households were counted in this woreda, resulting in an average of 6,360 persons to a household, and 3.40 housing units. The 1994 census reported it had a total population of 14,451 of whom 7,649 were men and 6,802 women.

The people speak mainly Amharic and Tigrinya

Tigrinya language

Tigrinya , also spelled Tigrigna, Tigrnia, Tigrina, Tigriña, less commonly Tigrinian, Tigrinyan, is a Semitic language spoken by the Tigrinya people in central Eritrea , where it is one of the two main languages of Eritrea, and in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia , where it...

 and also the educated people, for business, Sudanese Arabic.