Shilavo
Encyclopedia

Shilavo is a town of the 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...

n part of the Ogaden
Ogaden
Ogaden is the name of a territory comprising the southeastern portion of the Somali Regional State in Ethiopia. The inhabitants are predominantly ethnic Somali and Muslim. The title "Somali Galbeed", which means "Western Somalia," is often preferred by Somali irredentists.The region, which is...

. Located in the Korahe Zone
Korahe Zone
Korahe is one of nine Zones of the Somali Region of Ethiopia. Korahe is bordered on the south and west by Gode, on the north by Degehabur, and on the east by Werder...

 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...

, the town has a latitude and longitude of 6°06′N 44°46′E with an elevation of 395 meters above sea level. it is the administrative center of Shilavo
Shilavo (woreda)
Shilavo is one of the 47 woredas in the Somali Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Korahe Zone, its boundaries shown by official sources vary. On the OCHA map for the Somali Region , Shilavo is bordered on the south by the Gode Zone, on the southwest by Debeweyin, on the north by Kebri Dahar, and on...

 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...

.

Shilavo has an airport
Shilavo Airport
Shilavo Airport is an airport with a single unpaved runway in Shilavo, Ethiopia .-References:*...

 (IATA code HIL) with an unpaved runway, the destination of scheduled flights by Ethiopian Airlines
Ethiopian Airlines
Ethiopian Airlines , formerly Ethiopian Air Lines, often referred to as simply Ethiopian, is an airline headquartered on the grounds of Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It serves as the country's flag carrier, and is wholly owned by the Government of Ethiopia...

.

History

Dr G. Agge passed through the area in the 1930s, and later wrote that he encountered groves of acacia
Acacia
Acacia is a genus of shrubs and trees belonging to the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae, first described in Africa by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 1773. Many non-Australian species tend to be thorny, whereas the majority of Australian acacias are not...

 trees around a spring of brackish and sulphurous water. Some ten years previous to his arrival, there had been a fight between Somali and Italian
Italian Empire
The Italian Empire was created after the Kingdom of Italy joined other European powers in establishing colonies overseas during the "scramble for Africa". Modern Italy as a unified state only existed from 1861. By this time France, Spain, Portugal, Britain, and the Netherlands, had already carved...

 soldiers, and bones of the dead could be seen in the grass. The details about the battle were contradictory: one source claims they were Somali that the Italians had hunted down and killed, while another claimed that the Somali had slaughtered the Italians. By June 1935, the Ethiopian government had installed a garrison of 200 soldiers at Shilavo.

The former President of nearby Somalia
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...

, Maj. General Mohamed Siyad Barre
Siad Barre
Mohamed Siad Barre was the military dictator and President of the Somali Democratic Republic from 1969 to 1991. During his rule, he styled himself as Jaalle Siyaad ....

, was born in Shilavo, although he later claimed he was born in Garbahaarreey
Garbahaarreey
Garbahaarey is the capital of Gedo, the second largest and sixth most populous region of Somalia. Maj. General Mohamed Siyad Barre, Somalia's longest-serving president, claimed Garbahaarrey as his birthplace in order to get a job in the Italian colonial police force...

 so he would be eligible to serve in the Italian colonial police force.

Somali military units supported the Western Somali Liberation Front
Western Somali Liberation Front
The Western Somali Liberation Front was a separatist rebel group fighting in eastern Ethiopia to create an independent state. It played a major role in the Ogaden War of 1977-78 assisting the invading Somali Army...

's attack on an Ethiopian military unit outside Silavo in June 1982, which led to a renewal of hostilities between the two countries.

Then mayor of Shilavo, Hassan Ali Omar, was arrested in July 1995, for allegedly being a member of the Ogaden National Liberation Front
Ogaden National Liberation Front
The Ogaden National Liberation Front , is a separatist rebel group fighting to make the region of Ogaden in eastern Ethiopia an independent state...

.

Demographics

Based on 2005 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...

, Shilavo has an estimated total population of 7,239 of whom 3,877 are men and 3,362 are women. The 1997 census reported this town had a total population of 4,853 of whom 2,561 were men and 2,383 women. The largest ethnic group reported in this town was the 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...

(98.95%).
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