Hawzen 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...

. Located in the Misraqawi (Eastern) Zone

Misraqawi Zone

Misraqawi is a Zone in the Ethiopian Region of Tigray. Misraqawi is bordered on the east by the Afar Region, on the south by Debubawi , on the west by Mehakelegnaw and on the north by Eritrea. Its highest point is Mount Asimba...

 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...

 (or kilil), this town has a latitude and longitude of 13°58′N 39°26′E with an elevation of 2105 meters above sea level. Its market day is Wednesday. It is the largest settlement in Hawzen

Hawzen (woreda)

Hawzen is one of the 36 woredas in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Part of the Misraqawi Zone, Hawzen is bordered on the south by Wukro, on the west by the Mehakelegnaw Zone, on the north by Ganta Afeshum, and on the east by Saesi Tsaedaemba...

 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...

.

History

Tradition states that Hawzen was founded by The Sadqan, a group of Christian missionaries who came to Ethiopia during the reign of Kaleb of Axum

Kaleb of Axum

Kaleb is perhaps the best-documented, if not best-known, king of Axum. Procopius of Caesarea calls him "Hellestheaeus", a variant of his throne name Ella Atsbeha or Ella Asbeha...

. Four ancient stelae, similar to the Gudit Stelae outside Axum

Axum

Axum or Aksum is a city in northern Ethiopia which was the original capital of the eponymous kingdom of Axum. Population 56,500 . Axum was a naval and trading power that ruled the region from ca. 400 BC into the 10th century...

, can be found in the marketplace. The Church of Hawzen Tekle Haymanot, although a modern structure, encloses "a small rock-hewn church thought to be one of the oldest in Tigray based on the finely carved capital and column".

On 8 March 1892, Dejazmach Sebhat Aregawi submitted to Ras Mangesha Yohannes at Hawzen by ceremonially carrying a stone upon his neck before Ras Mangesha as the other Rases of Tigray and Ichege Tewoflos watched; Ras Mangesha then pardoned the Dejazmach. By March 1895, Ras Mangesha assembled about 4,000 men at the same town for an attack on Adigrat

Adigrat

Adigrat is a city in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia. Located in the Misraqawi Zone at longitude and latitude with an elevation of 2457 meters above sea level, below a high ridge to the west, Adigrat is the last important Ethiopian city south of the border with Eritrea, and is considered to be a...

. General Oreste Baratieri

Oreste Baratieri

Oreste Baratieri was an Italian general and governor of Eritrea who led the Italian army and was defeated in the First Italo–Ethiopian War's Battle of Adowa.-Early career:...

 reacted by gathering 3,144 soldiers near Senafe

Senafe

Senafe is a market town in southern Eritrea, on the edge of the Ethiopian highlands. The surrounding area is inhabited by the Saho people and the Tigrinya people....

, then marched to the support of the Italian-appointed governor, Ras Hagos Tafari. When Baratieri entered Adigrat on 25 March, Mangesha withdrew into Tigray.

More recently, on 22 June 1988 Hawzen was the target of one of the more brutal acts of the 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...

 against their opponents 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...

: upwards of 2,500 people were killed when the Ethiopian Air Force bombed the town marketplace. The parties and factors involved in the culmination of this air raid is yet to be revealed. TPLF's cameras were positioned to capture the air raid from different angles, as is evidenced by the video released soon after the event. TPLF cameras captured the attack as it happened, and afterwards, went onto the ground recording, in graphic detail, the results of the air raid. Ethiopia's public opinion differs as to the role played by TPLF in the creation of this event. Former Tigray People's Liberation Front leader Aregawi Berhe claims the attack was made at the direction, or at least tacit permission, of Legesse Asfaw, who had been appointed Chief Martial Law Administrator for Tigray the previous month. A memorial currently stands to commemorate the dead.

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, Hawzen has an estimated total population of 5,638 of whom 2,616 are men and 3,022 are women. The 1994 census reported it had a total population of 3,250 of whom 1,393 were men and 1,857 were women.