Tsorona-Zalambessa
Encyclopedia
Tsorona and Zalambessa are two small disputed areas on the border between 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...

 and 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...

. Tsorona is 23 km northwest of the larger Zalambessa village. The Eritreans claim both as part of their Debub (Southern) Region
Debub
Debub Region, also known as the Southern Region, is a region of Eritrea. It lies along a portion of the national border with Ethiopia.-Overview:...

, while the Ethiopians claim them as part of 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 their 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...

.

History

Zalambessa was a village that was fortified by Italian colonial forces. The fortifications were taken over by the Ethiopian military in 1952 when 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...

 was federated with 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...

. The older village remained under Eritrean Administration and the exact border became an issue in the modern border dispute
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...

.

In 2000, Eritrea and Ethiopia signed the Algiers Agreement (2000)
Algiers Agreement (2000)
The Algiers Agreement was an agreement between the governments of Eritrea and Ethiopia signed on December 12, 2000, at Algiers, Algeria to end the Eritrean-Ethiopian War, a border war fought by the two countries from 1998 to 2000...

 which forwarded the border dispute to a Hague boundary commission. In the Agreement both parties agreed in advance to comply with the ruling of the Border Commission. In 2002, the commission ruling, reconfirmed and made more precise in their final ruling effective November 2007, placed Tsorona inside Eritrean territory, and Zalambessa inside Ethiopian territory.

Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammed Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah announced in July 2009, during a 3-day visit to Ethiopia, that his country would provide a $63 million loan to Ethiopia, part of which would be used to build a road between Wukro
Wukro
Wukro is a town in northern Ethiopia. Located in the Misraqawi zone of the Tigray region on the Asmara-Addis Ababa highway, it is the administrative center of the district named after the town.- Overview :The rock-hewn churches around Wukro are the town's most distinctive landmarks; in the early...

 and Zalambessa.

According to the Eritrean Information Ministry, Ethiopian Forces crossed the border early on New Years Day 2010, and engaged in a fierce battle with Eritrean troops before quickly withdrawing back over the border, after having 10 soldiers killed and 2 taken prisoner. Ethiopian government spokesman Bereket Simon denied that any armed incursion had taken place.

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...

of Ethiopia released in 2005, Zalambessa has an estimated total population of 10,551, of whom 5,176 are men and 5,375 are women. The 1994 census reported it had a total population of 6,059 of whom 2,756 were males and 3,303 were females. It is not clear whether these census figures cover the entire area.
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