Welcome to Dire Dawa!
Dire Dawa in eastern Ethiopia is one of the country's two chartered cities. Dire Dawa (Amharic: ድሬዳዋ, Oromo: Dirre Dhawaa, lit. "Place of Remedy", Somali: Diridhaba, Diridhabe, meaning "where Dir hit his spear into the ground" or "The true Dir", Arabic: ديري داوا) is a city-state in eastern Ethiopia near the Oromia and Somali Region border and one of two chartered cities in Ethiopia (the other being Addis Ababa, the capital). Dire Dawa was part of Oromia until 1993 when it was split by the federal government into a separately administered city state. It is divided administratively into two woredas, the city proper and the non-urban woreda of Gurgura.
Dire Dawa lies in the eastern part of the nation, on the Dechatu River, at the foot of a ring of cliffs. The western outskirts of the city lie on the Gorro River, a tributary of the Dechatu River. It is located at the latitude and longitude of 9°36′N 41°52′E. The city is an industrial centre, home to several markets and the Dire Dawa Airport.
The projected population for 1 July 2015 was 440,000 for the entire chartered city and 277,000 for the city proper, making the latter the seventh largest city in Ethiopia.